


Identity

by ManicRavingsofaLunatic



Series: Young Apprentice [1]
Category: Young Justice, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Kidnapping, Robin being awesome, Robin/Artemis friendship, Squint for Traught
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 17:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2077374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManicRavingsofaLunatic/pseuds/ManicRavingsofaLunatic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A group of mercenaries try to pull off an ambitious kidnapping, but only succeed in taking Artemis Crock and Richard Grayson. With the world watching Bruce Wayne, the League is helpless to act. Can the two young heroes save themselves without betraying their secrets? Set post-season one/pre-season two with original team. Canon pairings. Robin-centric</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is a cross-posting from my account on ff.net under the penname TV Manic 2, and will be posted in 7 parts as it was originally published. It's set during the time-skip (which never should have happened - what the heck were the writers thinking?!) but it only stars the original team - no Zatanna or Rocket. Only Wally knows Robin's civilian ID.

**Part One**

"It's going to be okay…"

Well, that was a lie. Artemis could tell that much from the strange colour of the liquid oozing between her fingers as she prodded the wound. His body was so warm she could feel the heat radiating from him, feverish sweat glistening on his exposed skin in the harsh light. Finally she found what she was looking for, her thumb and forefinger closing around the warped lump of metal.

Her patient groaned and writhed weakly, having long ago lost the strength to scream.

"Shhh…" Artemis hushed, though it sounded more like begging to her ears. She blinked back tears at the pain that she was causing, wishing that there was another way – wishing that this had never happened in the first place. "It's okay, Grayson, shhh… shhh… you're okay…"

Dull blue eyes flew open briefly, and Artemis bit back a sob. He was looking right at her, but his eyes were so unfocused that he couldn't see her through the haze. The damn kid was still conscious, feeling every torture that she inflicted as she tried to help. His eyes squeezed shut again, his whole face contorting with pain as she ripped the bullet out of his abdomen. A yell tore from his throat and clawed at her heart. "I'm so sorry… oh God, I'm so sorry…"

She clamped one hand over the wound that was now bleeding afresh as she grappled with their supplies with the other. A first aid kit had been oh so generously provided, once it had been picked clean of anything remotely useful of course. She barely had what she needed to perform the patch-up job that she was currently struggling with. A set of vague instructions and a measured dose of what she could only assume were antibiotics were included in the kit – clearly whoever had captured them didn't want them dead just yet, though they weren't concerned enough to provide any professional medical help.

 _Who the hell had captured them? What did they want? Why wouldn't Richard_ stop bleeding _already!?_

Artemis forced herself to pause for a moment and take a deep breath. She was panicking. Though understandably so, it wasn't exactly helping her at that moment. She balled her free hand into a tight fist to stop the shaking, and then with a clearer mind, went back to work.

She had only been conscious for about ten minutes, though her awakening felt like hours ago now. Her head had hurt, the pain thumping behind her eyes and leaving her mind in a foggy mess. She had blinked up at the unfamiliar ceiling, shivering in the cold that bit through her thin shirt, trying to figure out what had happened.

Then she had heard a whimper.

Their accommodations consisted of a small, bare brick room with a single metal door and a lone bulb flickering above them. Exposed pipes ran up the walls, some of them warm enough to cause condensation to form but most of them cold and unused. Two cots had been pushed against opposite walls, made up of rigid aluminium frames and a thin stretch of canvas for a mattress. On one 'bed' she found herself, on the other was a sight that she'd never forget.

Richard Grayson, a sophomore kid that she barely knew, lay curled on his side with his back to her, his body shuddering violently. That was when Artemis' memory came flooding back to her like a sucker punch to the gut. The library… Mrs Foley… the kidnappers… _the gunshot._

Her legs barely co-operating, Artemis staggered the two foot across the room, ignoring the vertigo that strove to send her plummeting. Gently, cautiously, she had rolled Richard onto his back, shocked to find him so warm in a room so cold. What shocked her more though was the dark red blotch that stained his white school shirt.

He had woken at her touch, and in his delirium had attempted to push her away, to defend himself. The kid was a fighter, she'd give him that much. She had shushed him like a child and stroked his dark hair to try and calm him down. Maybe he had recognised her voice, or maybe he simply realised that resistance was pointless, but his struggles had finally ceased.

Artemis had had no idea what to do next – what _could_ she do? Sure, the 'training' she had received from her father had vaguely covered first aid – she'd patched up her sister a few times – but this was way beyond her skill set, even _with_ supplies…

It was then that she had noticed the first aid kit propped against the foot of his cot, with its cryptic instructions and mostly pilfered supplies.

Artemis didn't want to be responsible for saving Richard's life – she didn't even know if she _could_ – but there was something so familiar about him, something that pulled at her protective instincts. This kid who had randomly snapped a picture of them together on her first day, and then had seemed to go out of his way to avoid her ever since. This stranger. But when he had briefly met her grey eyes through a haze of pain and fever, he had given her a look of such trust; not a look someone with her background received often, and she had known that she would do anything to help him.

Somehow, they were friends. She was sure of it.

* * *

 

"Are you sure that this is wise?"

_Recognise: Batman 02. Recognise: Martian Manhunter 07. Recognise: Green Arrow 08._

"Whatever it takes," Batman replied evenly, though it didn't take Martian telepathy to know that the Gotham vigilante was angry. The three Leaguers stepped into the main hall of Mt. Justice as the light of the zeta tubes dulled behind them, leaving them in the glow of the circular floor pad. Instantly the computer sprang to life and several holo-screens materialised as if sensing the Dark Knight's sour mood. "Team, report to the training room."

"It's already been three hours," Green Arrow muttered, uncharacteristically nervous, as they waited for the young justice team to assemble. "No ransom, no demands. This is no ordinary kidnapping."

"Which is why we need no ordinary team," Batman explained as he began calling up the relevant data on the holo-screens. "They were taken in civilian ID in a very public way. As far as the world is concerned this is a normal, high-profile kidnapping, which is not League business. Direct involvement could raise questions that we don't want to be answering."

"I agree," Martian Manhunter nodded, his red eyes flickering over to where the teens would enter, "However there is no way to involve the team without them asking those very same questions. You yourself have always been so guarded of your identity…"

A blur of red and yellow streaked across the room, effectively cutting the Martian off. Kid Flash smiled eagerly as he took in the three heroes. "Have we got a mission? Sweet!"

Batman did not reply and Green Arrow just shifted awkwardly, though the excitable speedster failed to pick up on the tense atmosphere. Thankfully he was quickly joined by Aqualad, Superboy and Miss Martian, the latter of which studied the gathered Leaguers with a concerned expression. "What's going on?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Kid Flash grinned. "We've got a mission!"

The team looked to their elders, and Batman took that as his cue. "Three hours ago, a group of armed gunmen attempted to kidnap ten students from Gotham Academy…"

Kid Flash paled considerably, which Batman didn't fail to notice. Perhaps his protégé had already spilled his civilian ID, against his orders? "A-attempted?" the red-head asked.

"They were working in tandem with a teacher who we believe was being blackmailed," Batman continued, pulling up a photo of Miranda Foley, the Academy's Political Science teacher. "When she was proven to be no longer useful, she was executed. This, along with the efforts of two students, created enough confusion for the majority of the hostages to escape. However we believe that the kidnappers still succeeded in capturing their intended target."

"Who?" Kid Flash asked, his voice quieter than usual as if he already knew and feared the answer.

Batman tapped a few keys and two new photos appeared on the holo-screens. It took everything the Dark Knight had to keep his voice level as he read the names. "Richard Grayson and Artemis Crock."

"Wait… Artemis?" Superboy asked, blinking at the photo. "As in _our_ Artemis? Who's the other kid?"

Batman didn't know whether to be relieved or annoyed that the clone hadn't made the fairly obvious connection, but he decided to go with it. He wouldn't reveal Robin's identity unless he absolutely had to. "Richard Grayson, the ward of billionaire Bruce Wayne who happens to help finance the League. He has asked for our assistance in finding his son."

"But the League doesn't handle kidnappings," Kid Flash added. "Which is why _you_ can't act. Not without revealing Artemis' ID as well."

"Which is why we are bringing in the team," Green Arrow picked up. "Artemis is not from a wealthy family, she's at Gotham Academy on a scholarship, not a trust fund, meaning that she's not exactly the usual kidnap victim. That with the fact that Richard is connected to the League through Wayne, though that could be a coincidence, has led us to believe that this was not a normal kidnapping."

"It is an attack on the League," Aqualad concluded. "One that you cannot be seen to retaliate to."

"Exactly," Batman agreed. "This is a mission to locate and rescue your teammate and a civilian. Covertly."

All four teenagers nodded gravely, understanding the responsibility settled upon them. It took all of the self-control Batman had not to get out there and find Robin himself, but he couldn't do that without revealing their identities – and the consequences of that. Alfred was holding off the press and Commissioner Gordon at Wayne Manor for now, but it wouldn't be long before Bruce Wayne's absence was noticed. He had to trust that the young team was capable of doing this on their own.

Kid Flash stepped forward, looking determined. Batman was glad in that moment that Robin had trusted his best friend, as now the speedster fully understood the stakes. "What have we got to go on?"

The three adults shared a brief look before Batman typed a few more commands on the holographic keys. "The school's security cameras captured the kidnapping…"

"Which they do not need to see," Martian Manhunter said lowly. The whole League had seen the footage; it had left them devastated and frustrated at their inability to act. "The attackers are masked…"

"Understanding their tactics and abilities is important," Batman interrupted. He met the Martian's gaze and held it. "We need them to understand the _whole_ situation."

Particularly the part where time was running out fast for a certain bird.

* * *

**Several Hours Earlier...**

Mondays were always the same: monotonous American History followed by a one-sided dodge ball game in Phys Ed; the soft drone of Shakespeare in English Lit, a bit of a challenge in Calculus, all rounded off _avec un peu de français ennuyeux._

Dick sighed as he stared out of the window. Sometimes he wished that something, _anything_ , could happen to break up the boredom. Maybe an Arkham breakout… or another crazy-cold Ice Villain enforced snow day… or maybe even a good ol' fashioned kidnapping – they never failed to brighten his day! He rolled his eyes at his own sarcastic thoughts and tried to force himself to pay attention.

"…anybody?" Madame Ford was saying, looking hopefully at the rows of students spread out before her. No one appeared to be biting though. Dick didn't even know what the question was, so naturally, she just had to pick him as her victim. "Richard?"

"Uh… what?" Dick answered sensibly. Madame Ford sighed, looking both disappointed and resigned to her fate of teaching a bunch of privileged kids who had absolutely no desire to learn.

"Don't ask _Dick_ , miss," Devon Wynters, a kid in a letterman jacket slouched at the back of the class piped up. "Circus Boy can barely conjugate _English_!"

Dick resisted the urge to let his head drop to the desk in frustration. Only in Gotham Academy could the jocks use words with more than two syllables to insult you – even if they did struggle to find newer material than 'Circus Boy'. It was annoying that Dick beat up guys far tougher than Wynters on a regular basis, and yet he still had to just sit there and take it as the class erupted in laughter around him.

The joys of a having a secret identity.

"That's enough, Devon," Madame Ford attempted to regain control of her class, trying to draw their attention back to the French language. "Now, can anybody tell me…"

Dick tuned her out, knowing that he wouldn't be picked on again – at least Devon had done him that small favour, however unintentionally. His thoughts strayed to the team and he wondered if Batman would have a mission for them tonight. _Probably not,_ he thought derisively. _It's a school night. Can't be out late saving the world when there's a pop quiz in the morning!_

It's hard to keep school in perspective when you're a teenage crime fighter.

A soft, hesitant tapping at the classroom door brought Dick back to the present. Mrs Foley, his Political Science teacher, popped her head through the door and gave his bedraggled French teacher a small smile. "Sorry to interrupt, but I need to borrow Richard for a moment."

Dick raised his eyebrows. What had he done now? He was pretty sure that he had handed in his assignment… hadn't he? "Sure," Madame Ford nodded. "He's all yours."

Mrs Foley beckoned him towards the door, and Dick reluctantly got to his feet. He figured he'd be back soon, so he left his bag and books and ignored the curious looks he was getting as he left the class behind. "What's this about?"

"Oh, nothing to worry about, Richard," Mrs Foley tried to reassure him, but there was something off about her tone that put Dick on edge. "We've just got to go to the library. Mr Pritchard is holding a meeting with a few select students."

"Meeting?" Dick asked. He noted the way that his teacher never met his eyes, and her pace nearly doubled at his curiosity. "What kind of meeting?"

"Just a council of sorts," Foley replied, waving a hand as if to ward off any more questions. "To discuss some upcoming events at the school."

"Okay…" Dick muttered, entirely unconvinced. Every instinct told him that something was very, very wrong – but what choice did he have? "Could you be any more vague?"

Foley laughed nervously, but didn't answer. The nearer they got to the library doors, the more skittish she was becoming. She kept twisting her wedding ring on her finger and Dick noticed that she was sweating despite the coolness of October. "Mrs Foley," Dick said more forcefully, aware that they were less than half a corridor away from the library. "What is going on?"

"Nothing Richard," Foley snapped. "Come along please."

Dick was pretty sure that following Mrs Foley was the last thing that he should be doing, but this woman was still his teacher, no matter how weird she was acting. And apparently, they were going to see the principal. How would Dick explain that he'd knocked out the older woman and run off if this was really just a meeting? _I'm sorry, but my teacher was acting like a Super Villain?_ Yeah, that would go down well.

So Dick steeled his nerves and went against every instinct screaming at him to run. Within moments they reached the doors, which Foley knocked on in an odd rhythm. After a pause they were opened to reveal Gotham Academy's oversized library, and a large masked man who definitely was not the librarian.

Dick really wished he had listened. Running away was looking like a very good idea right then.

Before his feet could fulfil his wish however, the masked man grabbed his arm in a grip strong enough to make Bane jealous. Dick had a brief moment to think _Oh crap_ before he was yanked forcefully across the threshold and shoved into the atrium of the massive space. Foley followed the big man with quick light steps, just about missing the door as it was slammed closed. The man glared at her through the slits cut in his mask. "What took you so long?"

Foley stammered incoherently, unable to form a complete thought while pinned by his gaze. Dick took the opportunity to get his bearings. Gotham Academy's library was bigger than the city's public one, its tall stacks of books spreading out in a maze in every direction. The entrance hall was one of the few open spaces, a circular expanse lit from above by an ornate dome skylight – only the best for Gotham's elite after all. The front desk was currently unmanned, leaving the space empty aside from the three of them. Dick would have run – there were plenty of hiding places – but he could tell from the masked man's posture that he was well trained. He might not have been looking at him, but Dick knew that if he tried to move, the man would be quicker.

"Whatever," the masked man grunted impatiently. He gestured at the door. "Go get the last one. No delays this time."

"Y-y-yes… c-course…" Foley practically bowed as she backed up towards the exit. "R-right away…"

Through the black fabric of the ski mask, Dick could see the man's features twist into a smile as he turned his cold eyes on the teenager. Dick got the impression that he was being sized up like a piece of meat, the man silently totting up the ransom he could swindle from his wealthy guardian. It was the same look all the bad guys gave him, usually about ten minutes before Batman swooped in and bashed their heads in. This wasn't the first time he had been kidnapped.

"Move," the masked man (El Jefe, Dick randomly decided to name him) instructed, steering Dick by the shoulder as they headed deeper into the library. They turned a corner and followed a corridor of bookshelves before the library once again opened into one of the many reading areas. Encased on three sides by books, the square space was invisible from the main door, preventing them from being discovered by any visitors. The fourth wall consisted of one-sided glass windows and a door that led to the parking lot. Usually, it was locked for security reasons. Dick doubted that it was now.

The couches that were normally in the middle of the space were pushed back against the stacks, creating enough floor space for the group of hostages. There were eight more students beside himself, and Dick recognised each and every one of them. He could actually recite each family's net worth from memory. They were the children of the richest of the rich of Gotham, their wealth equalled only by his own as the 'Crowned Prince'.

It was a bold plan – why only kidnap one rich kid when there's a whole school full of tantalising ransoms to choose from? But Dick had a gut feeling that there was something more going on here. This was something a bit too ambitious for a mercenary. Or even a group of them…

El Jefe pushed Dick towards the others and then turned to one of his comrades and switched dialects. Unfortunately it was a language that Dick didn't speak, so he settled for reading body language and their vocal tones as he dropped on the floor beside Bette Kane. The elder teen passed him a concerned look, but Dick could see the fear in her eyes so he ended up giving her a comforting smile instead. He doubted that it was the first time she had been kidnapped either.

There were five masked men in total, all armed and prepared for war. They wore black uniforms that lacked any markings or identifying symbols underneath TAC vests that looked well-stocked enough to put Batman's utility belt to shame. Three of them had semi-automatic guns clipped to their vests, P90s if Dick had to guess; and they all had pistols in thigh holsters and combat knives in their belts. That was a lot of firepower for a kidnapping at a school… just what kind of resistance were they expecting from a bunch of privileged teenagers…?

El Jefe, the one who had so kindly greeted Dick at the door, kept glancing over at him as if worried that he would start trouble. But that made absolutely no sense – he was the smallest kid there and he knew that there was no record of Dick Grayson knowing self-defence on his Wikipedia page. (Not that he'd ever checked his wiki page of course…) Unless the guy somehow knew that he was Robin, which was unlikely, there was no reason for him to be seen as a threat.

Unless he wasn't a _threat…_ but a _target._

Dick looked over at the other students who were mostly being ignored. They were all gathered together; in the school that they were being kidnapped _from_ , waiting for Foley to collect one more kid. Why? The collective worth sitting there right then was worth more than twice a king's ransom. Why risk the chance of being discovered for one more kid when the richest in school were already there? It had to be the stupidest plan ever.

The odd rhythm of taps sounded from the library main doors and El Jefe headed out to pick up the last hostage. Dick heard an outraged shout that carried through the stacks followed by the final slamming of the door.

"Hey! Let me go!" yelped a voice Dick recognised instantly. He sat up straighter and watched as El Jefe returned with Foley in tow, and a tall, blonde-haired girl struggling in his arms. "You are making a big mistake! Let me go so I can kick your ass!"

 _Artemis_.

Oh yeah, this had to be the stupidest kidnap plan ever… or the cleverest attack against the League for a while.

Everything fell into place and made a heck of a lot more sense to the teenage vigilante. It was all one massive ploy – the highest profile kidnapping in Gotham masking the capture of one/two (depending on whether or not they knew who he was) heroes in civilian ID. The League would know that Artemis at least was the target, but they wouldn't be able to act without revealing that fact to the world. Dick didn't know who had hired the mercenaries, but whoever it was, they were smart.

But he was smarter.

"Hey!" Dick jumped to his feet and crossed his arms across his chest, looking every bit the conceited trust fund brat. "What kind of a kidnapping is this? I mean – I get why you grabbed us, but what's with the charity case?"

Artemis stopped fighting her captor to glare daggers at him. Dick was pretty sure that if she were loose right then that she would be attacking him for that comment, but he'd apologise later once they'd gotten out of this. Bette stood up beside him. "She's a scholarship student," she explained bravely, and a little more politely, though Dick could still feel her shaking. "She can't afford the ransoms our families can."

"Sit down," El Jefe growled menacingly. Bette obeyed as the other masked-men held their weapons ready, but Dick stepped forward, drawing all attention to him.

"Why should I?" he asked indignantly. Artemis shot him a warning look, but he didn't need it. He was all too aware of the amount of firepower currently aimed at him. He rolled his eyes, feigning more confidence than he felt. "You _clearly_ don't know what you're doing. I mean, you were doing well with the whole lots of rich kids thing, but then you just had to go and ruin it." Dick turned to Mrs Foley and internally winced at what he was about to say. "Did you pick up the trash by accident?"

" _Why you little…"_

"Enough!" El Jefe snapped, cutting off whatever Artemis was about to say. He drew his pistol and levelled it at Dick, loosening his hold and attention on Artemis. The archer then realised what Dick was doing, her eyes widening in surprise. "Sit down before I put you down you little runt!"

Dick smirked. "Well you just failed Kidnapping 101. You can't get a ransom if you kill the hostage."

"Y-you s-said you w-wouldn't harm th-them…" Foley stuttered, her eyes flicking between the tiny teenager and the massive mercenary.

"Sit _down!"_

"And you really believed that?" Dick asked Foley, completely ignoring El Jefe's instructions. His grip on Artemis' arm was barely there; his rage was so focused on the spiralling situation. Dick saw the archer slip into a ready position out of the corner of his eye, and he could feel the stares of his classmates on his back as they watched the powder keg burn.

Foley turned on El Jefe with a coward's confidence. "Wh-why do you w-want Crock?"

"Does it _matter?!"_

"I think it's pretty relevant," Dick added helpfully.

"SHUT UP AND _SIT DOWN!"_

" _Make me_." Dick challenged as he stepped forward. El Jefe forgot about Artemis entirely and closed the distance between himself and Dick, using his considerable height and bulk to overshadow the teenager imposingly.

"Err… Boss…" one of his men warned. The other four gunmen had gotten closer, closing ranks around their little group.

"How'd you like to eat a bullet, _brat?"_ El Jefe asked, pressing his pistol in Dick's face.

"Sounds tasty."

Everything happened at once. As El Jefe squeezed the trigger, Dick pushed his arm up, clearing his face of the barrel just as the bullet left the chamber. He felt the bullet graze millimetres above his head, the boom of the shot deafening in such close quarters.

Artemis meanwhile launched herself at two of the men at the same time, the move taking them completely by surprise. She grabbed the P90s hooked to their vests and flipped up and over their heads, dragging them to the floor with their own weapons.

"NO!" screamed Foley as the weapon discharged and hurled herself at El Jefe. She hooked her arms around his meaty neck just as Dick was shaking off the ringing in his ears. The mercenary twisted round for Foley and grabbed her by the hair, making her yell in pain. Dick instantly dropped and took out El Jefe with a powerful leg sweep, reaching up and grabbing the larger man by his gun hand; pulling him forward instead of backwards so that he didn't squish the elder teacher.

He rolled out of the way before El Jefe could land on him or recover; but then he found himself being hauled up by another one of the goons. The mercenary grabbed him by his tie like a hangman's noose, holding him at least a foot off the ground. The knot tightened painfully, cutting off his oxygen. As his vision blurred he was vaguely aware of Artemis trying to beat her way through the bad guys to reach him while yelling at the other students to run. Mrs Foley was trying to scratch El Jefe's face off, but with a cruel back hand he sent her sprawling on the floor.

He then took his pistol and put a bullet in her head.

Artemis let out a shocked cry that gave one of the masked men an opening to punch her in the gut and double her over. She recovered quickly enough though and kept fighting, but these goons were well trained. They wouldn't stay down.

Just as Dick's vision was going grey and tunnelling to a pin prick, the last of the hostages finally fled from their alcove in the stacks. _Now_ he could fight.

Dick grabbed the arm holding his tie, leveraging himself up so that he could swing a double drop-kick down on the goon's face. He was ditched rather ungracefully onto the carpet where he kicked the man in the shins and then rolled away, gasping. He clawed the tie away from his throat and ripped it off, coughing as his lungs sucked in air greedily. The world was spinning dangerously around him, but he pushed himself back to his feet and barrelled into the guy about to punch Artemis in the face.

Now all they needed to do was get out of the library. The gunshots would have alerted the school's security by now. It was nearly over.

"Get down!" Artemis yelled as she shoved them both to the floor. Wood splinters and obliterated books rained down on them as automatic gunfire shredded the bookshelf above them. El Jefe shouted in the other language and the shooter abruptly stopped. The two teens rolled back to their feet and watched their captors warily. The five masked-men now stood between them and the exits.

"Freeze!"

Muzzle flashed in response. The lone security guard never stood a chance, his Taser falling unused to the ground as spurts of red appeared in his uniform.

The two teen heroes simply reacted. As one they leapt at the gunmen and tried to wrestle their weapons from them as the sound of more of the security came running towards them. Two on five was never going to end well however.

One of the guns discharged accidently and Dick flinched at the sound. He twisted the weapon hard to the right and was rewarded with the snaps of multiple broken fingers. He then swung the butt of the gun into its owner's jaw, dislodging at least a few teeth.

"That's enough, runt," El Jefe said in a surprisingly calm voice, grabbing Dick by his shirt collar. "Wouldn't want to cause any more damage."

Suddenly, Dick became aware of a burning sensation in his gut. He glanced down to find a growing red stain spreading across his white shirt. He blinked as he staggered backwards, not quite able to comprehend what had happened.

He'd been shot.


	2. Part Two

** Part Two **

"This would be so much easier if we had our hacker," Superboy grumbled as he combed through one of the cave's databases. "Where is Robin, anyway?"

Kid Flash didn't look up from what he was doing, partly to not waste time, but mostly to avoid eye contact as he lied through his back teeth. "Rob's civilian ID goes to Gotham Academy, remember? Batman said that he'd gotten caught up in the police investigation and that he couldn't get away without looking suspicious."

Miss Martian studied the speedster as if she could tell that he was lying, and Wally shifted under her gaze. It wasn't a complete fib, Robin had revealed as much back in the beginning when they had fought Amazo in the school's gym, but he still felt bad lying to his team – how did Robin do it all the time? Wally cleared his throat and changed the subject. "So, any luck tracking down Foley?"

"The GCPD followed the same lead," Aqualad answered, pulling up the police report on a holo-screen to show the others. "Miranda Foley was married with one child, living in one of the nicer areas of Gotham with steady financials. No priors or apparent vices of any kind."

"Not exactly prime blackmail material," Wally noted.

"That is what the police thought," Kaldur agreed. He then pulled up a series of crime scene photos. "Detectives went to Foley's home to talk to the husband, however what they found was an empty house with signs of a break-in and a struggle."

M'gann gasped. "They kidnapped her family!? That's horrible!"

"The GCPD are searching for them in the hopes that they can lead to the kidnappers," Kaldur explained. "But so far they have had little luck."

"So what now?" Connor asked. "Do we need to be tracking down the Foley family as well?"

"No," Wally answered before Kaldur could. "We need to focus on finding Artemis."

M'gann gave Wally an understanding look, reaching over and placing a comforting hand on his arm. He and Artemis had been going steady for nearly ten months now, and it was no secret that he had liked the archer even before that – that debacle of a training exercise had proven that one. Obviously the speedster was worried about his girlfriend. But what M'gann didn't realise was that that wasn't all – watching the security footage, seeing his best friend and honorary little brother get _shot_ … Wally _really_ needed to find them.

"Wally… I know that Artemis is important, I'm not saying that she's not," M'gann said carefully. Her own experience with putting Connor before everyone else, particularly that time in Bialya, made her wary of sounding hypocritical. But when it wasn't _your_ significant other in jeopardy, it was a lot easier to remain objective. "But there are civilians in danger as well. We can't just abandon them when we have a better chance of finding them than the police. This is our best lead…"

"Actually, it's not," Wally snapped, a little louder than he had intended. His teammates all gave him confused looks, probably thinking that he'd finally lost it. "We can identify the kidnappers and track them back to their employer."

"Uh… how?" Connor asked intelligently. "They all wore masks…"

Wally sighed impatiently and pulled up the security footage from the kidnapping, playing a small snippet of the masked-men talking amongst themselves in their native tongue. They already had a computer program running to translate it, but Wally knew a quicker way. "That language they're speaking? It's Vietnamese."

Kaldur caught on the quickest, his eyebrows rising as he followed the speedsters train of thought. "Cheshire."

"Exactly."

Kaldur stood up from where he had been hunched over the main computer and turned to address the team. "We are splitting up and following both leads. M'gann and Connor, you will be tracking down Foley's family and finding out what they know."

"And you guys will be…?" Connor asked.

"We will be visiting an old friend."

* * *

Artemis sagged against the side of the cot, her legs curled on the floor and her arms folded beneath her chin. The adrenaline had left her all at once, leaving her exhausted, the myriad of injuries she had earned in the earlier battle at the school suddenly making themselves known. Her ribs ached, her head hurt and her ankle, that she hadn't even realised she had twisted, throbbed with a vengeance.

She listened to Richard's uneven breathing and watched his body twitch as his shakes gradually subsided. He had finally passed out a little while ago when she had been stitching up the wound, though his sleep was clearly far from peaceful. She had placed a fresh bandage over the stitches and pulled his shirt back down to cover it up. The fabric was rigid with dried blood, but she had nothing clean to give him. Once she had finished patching him up she had noticed the violent purple bruise around his neck, and activated a cold pack to help bring down the swelling.

There was nothing more that she could do. She had given him the antibiotics to try and combat the infection, but there was no pain medication to be found in the half-empty kit. The bad guys wanted them alive, but preferably suffering.

Artemis sighed heavily and then gave their cell a closer look. There wasn't much to see beyond the details that she had picked up earlier – cold brick walls, no windows, and a sturdy looking door. Artemis glared at said door for a good five minutes, as if she would suddenly develop telekinesis and rip it from its hinges with her mind. When that didn't work, she dragged herself to her feet, wincing as pain flared in her ankle and the room became unfocused through a dizzy haze. She forced herself to make the three steps between the cot and the exit, though it was more of a stumble followed by an off-balance lurch. She hit the door with a loud _clang_ , and ended up leaning against it just to keep herself upright.

She didn't know why she felt so lethargic and clumsy; maybe she'd been drugged before or her headache was really a more serious concussion, but all it was doing was making her angry. It was annoying her that her body refused to co-operate, that her fingers felt like they didn't belong to her as she pried at the lock – she had been fine ten minutes ago! But then again, she was panicking then, and now she was, what? Scared? Defeated?

 _Yeah right!_ Artemis dismissed those thoughts. So what if she was trapped in a dungeon with an injured kid and no way out? She was a freaking super hero! She growled in frustration and hammered against the door. She yelled a few insults for good measure, hoping her kidnapper was beginning to second guess his choice of victim.

Suddenly, a slot opened at the bottom of the door, and a tray of food was slid between Artemis' feet. Her battle against the door ceased as she looked down at the most unappetising meal she had ever seen, her stomach rumbling expectantly.

The slot slammed shut and footsteps receded as the chef took his leave. Artemis contemplated ignoring the food in protest, before realising that that was just stupid. She was already hungry from skipping lunch. If… _ahem… When_ their rescue showed up, Artemis didn't want to be too weak to help, she wasn't some damsel in distress.

Well… she kinda was at the moment… but that was beside the point.

She nudged the tray closer to Richard's cot with her toe and dropped herself back on the floor where she had been before. Her ankle complained loudly at the mistreatment, and she decided to take a moment to see how bad it actually was. She pulled down her knee-high school sock and slipped off her shoe to find her ankle was one massive bruise. Artemis frowned at it, as if disappointed by its audacity to be injured, and then propped it up on the other cot. It wasn't the most lady-like position in her uniform's too-short skirt, but nothing was on display and she knew that she had to keep it elevated. She smacked another cold pack to activate it and tucked it in to her sock to keep it in place.

She then turned back to the food. Behind her Richard shifted as if caught in a nightmare, gibberish escaping his lips between wheezed breaths. Artemis glanced at him to check that he was okay, and then looked back at the tray, feeling guilty.

She was _starving_. She had sensibly skipped breakfast as well as lunch that day, and she was currently running on the apple that she had pinched from the cafeteria on her free period. The food on offer now was a grey mountain of… something, a bread roll and a cup of water. Barely enough for one person, let alone two.

Sure, Grayson was unconscious, but he wouldn't be forever. When he woke up there was no guarantee that their next fine dining experience would have arrived.

Artemis decided to split the meal in half. She used an alcohol wipe to clean her hands and then tore the bread roll in two. With the spoon so graciously provided (maybe she could use it to dig an escape tunnel later…?) she divvied up the gruel and dug into her share. It tasted horrible, but she ate it all regardless, washing it down with half of the glass of water. Once she was finished, she pushed the tray away, against the strong protests of her still half-empty stomach, and leaned her head back against the cot.

It was from that angle that she finally caught sight of a tiny flashing red light. Tucked right in the far corner of the ceiling, between a pipe and the wall, was a small security camera. Artemis huffed.

_Great. We're being watched._

* * *

 

Bruce Wayne glared at the masked man on the screen before him. It was pretty damn close to the 'Daddy-bats glare' that Clark admitted even made the Man of Steel shudder. It didn't seem to be having the same effect on the guy on the screen though. If anything, the kidnapper looked completely at ease, as if negotiating a ransom with a billionaire was a regular occurrence.

"I want proof of life," Bruce demanded, literally seething in anger. Beside him, Commissioner Gordon placed a hand on his shoulder to both warn and comfort him. At no point had the demands prohibited a police presence, and so both he and Bruce were visible on the webcam. Obviously the flock of techs that had been summoned to try and trace the signal weren't though.

The kidnapper chuckled. His masked face and shoulders were all that were framed by the camera, close enough that Bruce could make out his facial expression and see the cold grey of his eyes. Bruce was pretty sure that it wasn't the leader, his mannerisms were different from the man in the video and his voice was more jovial. He reminded Bruce of a used-car salesman rather than a mercenary – though it wasn't that bigger leap between the two. " _I'm sure you would… especially after poor Richard went and got himself shot… He's not all that bright, is he?"_

Bruce growled, ignoring Gordon's hand which clenched a little tighter on his shoulder.

It had been five hours since the kidnappers had fled the school with Dick and Artemis. There had been nothing but silence from them since, and that put Bruce on edge. Gordon had arrived at the Manor to break the news, and then set up his team and their wire taps to wait patiently for the call. Bruce had managed to slip off for a short time to brief the team, but aside from that he had been trapped in his family home feeling entirely useless. Suddenly, the vast Manor had felt so very small and claustrophobic, cold without Dick's presence to brighten its dark corners.

" _If you want him back without any more… accidents… I suggest that you do as I say,"_ the kidnapper grinned. Bruce really wanted to punch him in the face.

"You won't get anything until I have proof that Dick is okay," Bruce scowled.

The kidnapper pouted. _"Well, that's no fun."_

"Let me talk to him, right now!"

" _Oh, he's in no fit state to_ talk _, Mr Wayne,"_ the kidnapper shrugged. He then gestured at someone off camera, the movement shown by the slight twitch of his shoulder. _"But if you insist, I guess I could_ show _you."_

The masked man vanished, his image replaced with a live feed of a small white-brick cell with two occupants. On the floor with her leg propped up on a cot was Artemis, a tray of half-eaten food beside her and the contents of a first aid kit scattered on the floor. On the cot behind her was Dick, and Bruce's breath caught in his throat. His little bird lay flat on his back, his eyes closed tight and the dark red stain showing prominently on his shirt. In the grainy image Dick looked so still, but as Bruce watched he could just make out the juddery rise and fall of his chest.

The kidnapper reappeared. _"See? They're fine. A little banged up, but still breathing and all that. Let's see if we can keep them that way, eh?"_

"What do you want?" Bruce hissed.

" _That's more like it!"_ the kidnapper exclaimed, his eyes lighting up through the slits in the mask. _"I think you'll find I'm being more than fair. I'm going to give you a two-for-one deal as I have been reliably informed that the Crocks' can't cough the coinage like you can, Mr Wayne! Rather considerate of me, don't you think?"_

On the other side of the room, Paula Crock went very rigid in her wheelchair. She had been brought in once the GCPD had rerouted all of her lines of communication to the manor to make it easier for the cops to monitor the dual kidnapping. She met Bruce's eyes, two concerned parents silently promising to do whatever it took to save their children.

Bruce nodded. "I'll pay for both Artemis and Dick."

" _Excellent!"_ the kidnapper beamed. _"Now, my demands are simple. I want $100,000,000 ready to be wired to an account that I will give you the number of in exactly…"_ he glanced down at his watch, waiting for the second hand to get to the twelve _"…twenty-three hours and forty-nine minutes. Or I'll be sending the kids home in itty-bitty body bags!"_

Gordon spluttered and Bruce grabbed at the computer. "Wait! You know that's not possible! There's no way I can get that kind of money together in that little time!"

" _I guess I better start carving Richard up then…"_ the kidnapper sighed.

"No!" Bruce yelled.

" _You've got twenty-three hours and forty-eight minutes now, Mr Wayne,"_ the kidnapper shrugged. _"You'd better find a way or this is going to be a very short stay for the little darlings…"_

* * *

 

"What is this?" Cheshire asked suspiciously as she melted from the shadows. One of the three heroes jumped and spun round to face her while the other two just watched her carefully. She must have done something particularly special to receive a summons from her second favourite archer and his junior justice friends.

"We need information," Red Arrow said, getting straight to the point. No pleasantries or falsities – Cheshire liked that about him, even if he was starting to let himself go as he grew obsessed with the search for the 'Original Roy Harper'. She quite liked _this_ version to be honest.

The assassin grinned behind her mask. "And I would just provide this information because…?"

"You have heard the news by now," replied Aqualad, another straight arrow, though he was nowhere near as fun to play with as Red. Atlanteans were just so hard to rile up. "I am sure that you keep tabs on your sister. You know that she has been taken."

Cheshire narrowed her eyes behind her mask. Yes, she had heard that her good little sister had gotten herself kidnapped from her posh school, and had been doing some digging of her own. Not that she cared of course, it was just the principle. No one could hurt Artemis but her. Though as she had begrudgingly admitted in the Smokey Mountains last year; she didn't actually _want_ her dead. Cheshire shrugged non-committedly. "Perhaps."

"Do you know who took her or not?" Kid Flash snapped. Cheshire had wondered when he would speak up. She knew all about her sister's odd infatuation with the speedster, despite Artemis' attempts to hide it. The poor little hero must have been going out of his mind with worry for her.

Cheshire weighed up her options. As much as she was loath to help the junior justice league, she had to admit that their goals in this singular instance were similar. She wasn't making much headway solo, and time tended to be a factor in these things. She would rather get her sister back in one piece after all.

"No, I don't know who took her," Cheshire replied, sounding more exasperated than she would normally allow. "But I do know that it wasn't a kidnapping in the traditional sense – though I'm sure you had already figured that part out."

"We know that it is an attack against the League," Aqualad agreed. "However that does not exactly narrow down the list of suspects."

"No, I imagine it wouldn't," Cheshire said dryly. "I picked up some chatter a while back where an anonymous benefactor was offering high prices for information about your little team; particularly your secret identities. But when I had tried to apply for the job, the guy had completely disappeared off the radar."

"You know our secret identities?" Aqualad asked with a quirked brow.

Cheshire smiled slyly, the expression coming across in her voice as her face was hidden behind the grinning mask. "Oh, I know a lot of things, Kaldur'ahn."

"Except where your sister is," Kid Flash retorted. He crossed his arms and glared at her challengingly. Maybe there was some hope for her sister's taste in men after all.

"She was probably shut out because they had figured out her relation to Artemis," Red Arrow deduced. "Once you've figured out her civilian ID it's not all that hard to connect the dots."

"And I was so looking forward to that pay day as well…" Cheshire drawled wistfully as she turned to leave. "I guess this means that you won't be getting that information after all."

Kid Flash stepped forward, and Cheshire noticed that he was wearing one black glove which was definitely not part of the speedster's bright uniform. "There's one more thing that you should see."

Cheshire cocked her head to one side curiously as Kid Flash pressed a button on his wrist and a holographic display burst to life. Security footage taken from Gotham Academy's library began to play, complete with sound that echoed in the desolate alley. Cheshire watched as Artemis and some rich kid fought back against the kidnappers, while a woman and a security guard were put down. Finally, the kid went down too, leaving Artemis against five armed men.

Cheshire felt a hint of pride (that she would completely deny later) as she watched her baby sister struggle on before she was taken out by a clean right hook. The men then had a quick discussion in a language that she recognised, one that made her blood boil.

 _He wouldn't._ Cheshire thought, and then internally rolled her eyes. _Who am I kidding? Of course he would!_

Kid Flash stopped the playback and deactivated the borrowed wrist computer. "What did they say?"

"They said that they could salvage the situation," Cheshire vaguely translated, distracted by her anger, and the odd sense of betrayal that she had thought she was long since used to by now. "One kid is enough to cover Artemis' kidnapping and buy them the time to set up."

"Set up what?" Kid Flash asked.

Cheshire shrugged. "I guess I'll find out when I track him down."

It was time for her to pay Daddy-dearest a little visit.

* * *

The virus that was suburbia had managed to spread to every corner of America, even managing to grow roots in Gotham. In one of the few green spaces just outside of the city limits, identical cheery homes had sprouted like weeds, with their perfectly square front lawns and the herds of SUVs; looking a world away from the overcrowded towers of the city that loomed over them.

M'gann thought it looked rather pleasant actually, almost exactly like Megan's neighbourhood from her favourite TV show. Although, in _Hello, Megan_ there wasn't generally police cruisers and crime scene tape. That was more like that CSI show that always made her feel ick.

Landing the bio-ship would have been too conspicuous, even in camouflage mode, so with a nod at Connor she opened a hatch in the floor. M'gann went first, cloaking herself and then dropping through the hole. She settled gently in the Foley's backyard and scoped out her surroundings.

By the back door a uniformed police officer was looking up curiously, maybe noticing the slight ripples created by the bio-ship. M'gann's eyes glowed green briefly as she sought out the officer's mind. He quickly fell asleep, falling back against the house and then sliding safely to the floor, snoring softly.

' _Okay Connor, all clear.'_ She thought over the psychic link. Behind her she sensed him drop from the craft with far more grace than he used to. He barely shook the ground at all now.

Connor glanced at the police officer and then at M'gann.

She just about resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He was getting far too concerned about her use of telepathy lately. _'Don't worry, he's just sleeping.'_

' _Good.'_ Connor grunted. He then walked up to the thankfully unlocked back door, and slid it open quietly. He cocked his head to one side, listening for heartbeats. _'There's no one inside.'_

M'gann nodded and flew across the threshold, landing lightly on the linoleum kitchen floor. Inside, the house was like any other family home. A child's drawings covered the refrigerator door, photos littered the walls and toys were scattered all over the floor. But the warmth was missing. M'gann could feel the vestiges of fear clinging to the cold desolation of the invaded home. Her eyes began to itch with unshed tears. _'Something bad happened here.'_

Family clutter melded into a trail of destruction that led the two heroes into the front room. The curtains were drawn; perhaps the abduction had happened at night, or maybe the police were concerned about nosey neighbours. Either way, it left the room in darkness, making the scene that they found look like something from a horror movie.

Bullet holes pitted the walls and the upholstery was shredded. The couch had been pulled out as if someone had been hiding behind it. M'gann couldn't help but imagine Foley's young son shivering in fear as he waited for the bad guys to find him. What made the whole thing worse was the blood on the carpet.

M'gann swallowed down tears and looked over at Connor who put a comforting hand on her shoulder. _'Can you see anything the police might have missed?'_

Connor stared at the floor like he did when he was using his x-ray vision. Slowly, he scanned every inch, picking up every little detail. And then he did a double take.

' _What is it?'_

Connor didn't reply, he just turned on his heel and headed back into the kitchen. M'gann followed behind him, wondering what could have gotten him so spooked. It took a lot to flap Superboy… whatever he'd seen couldn't be good.

' _They came through here.'_ Connor pointed at the floor, and M'gann could just about make out the scuffs in the linoleum. The super-clone then stepped up to what M'gann had assumed was the pantry door, though now as Connor opened the latch she realised it was the entrance to the basement. _'Watch your step.'_

Connor flicked on the light and began to descend a rickety looking staircase. M'gann took to the air and floated a few inches above the steps – she was almost as clumsy as her borrowed namesake after all. The deeper they went, the more M'gann began to notice the odd smell. It wasn't so strong that she gagged, but it was still a nasty scent.

In the middle of the basement the floor was slightly uneven, as if someone had lifted some of the slabs but they hadn't quite fit back down again. With a jolt, M'gann realised that that was exactly what someone had done. She glanced over at Connor for confirmation.

' _They're buried under the ground,'_ Connor thought grimly. _'No heartbeats.'_

M'gann clapped her hands over her mouth to stop herself from crying out loud. Connor pulled her into a hug and held her for a few minutes until she regained her composure. The young Martian felt so angry and upset; and so very guilty. A whole family, a _small child_ , had been sacrificed by the kidnappers in order to get to the League. They didn't have anything to do with the fight between Good and Evil, and yet they had been caught in crossfire regardless.

' _Do… do you think Miranda Foley knew…?'_ M'gann asked after a while.

' _That they were already dead? I doubt it. She wouldn't have done as they asked if she did,'_ Connor replied. He pulled out of their embrace slightly so that he could meet her eyes. _'There's nothing here to help us find Artemis.'_

M'gann chewed her lip in worry. This was their best lead. Unless Wally and the others managed to find something out from Cheshire… what else did they have to go on…?

Connor glanced up at the ceiling and frowned. _'A cop just came inside. We need to get out of here.'_

Feeling dejected and lost, M'gann just nodded and allowed Connor to lead her away.

* * *

 

_Recognise: Kid Flash B03. Recognise: Aqualad B02._

Green Arrow looked up from the holo-screen that he was studying and examined the new arrivals expectantly. Aqualad was looking pensive while Kid Flash was far more subdued than usual as he pulled off the borrowed black glove that was a touch too small for him. "Was Cheshire any help?"

"In a manner of speaking," Aqualad answered with a sigh. "She was not involved in the kidnapping and did not know who the perpetrators were; however she did shed some light on the man behind the curtain. It would appear that whoever did this was greatly interested in the team's civilian identities, and has bigger plans than simply angering the League."

Green Arrow furrowed his brow. "What kind of plans?"

"We do not know," Aqualad replied. "But Cheshire translated their conversation. Though they were unable to get away with all of their intended hostages, Richard Grayson will be enough to cause a distraction while they set up something for Artemis. What, we do not know. She also believes that Sportsmaster is involved somehow and is tracking him down as we speak."

"Good." Green Arrow grunted as he typed a few commands into the computer. A video of Cat Grant from the GBS network began to play with the headline _Bruce Wayne's ward's Ransom Video Goes Viral_ rolling beneath her as she stood outside the imposing Manor. "If it's a distraction they're after then they're doing a pretty damn good job playing up Richard's kidnapping. They contacted Wayne an hour ago and then posted the video online – the press are going nuts over it."

"What do the kidnappers want?" Aqualad asked.

"Nothing short of the impossible," Green Arrow said. "$100,000,000 ready to wire in less than twenty-four hours. Wayne's working on it, but most of his fortune is tied up in stock shares and investments. It will take too long to liquidate the amount that they're asking for."

"Why make such a ridiculous demand?" The news programme showed the ransom video again for what must have been the hundredth time, and Green Arrow saw Kid Flash stiffen as the scene from the prison cell played. Even as a seasoned hero, Green Arrow found it difficult to watch the two kids in trouble. He sympathised with the speedster who was seeing his best friend and girlfriend hurt and alone.

Kid Flash grimaced. "Because it's not the money they want. They must not know about Grayson's connection to the League so now they're just looking for an excuse to kill him. While the League is unable to act because of the publicity, they're setting up whatever they've got in store for Artemis."

Green Arrow feared the young hero was right. And the worst part was that through pure happenstance, the kidnappers would be attacking the League twice over by killing the Batman's protégé without even knowing it. "We've got to track them down before Richard's deadline or we could lose them forever."

"Not going to happen." Kid Flash stated determinedly. "We'll find them."

Aqualad nodded. "What of Connor and M'gann? Have they reported in yet?"

"No," Green Arrow replied. "They took the bio-ship out a while ago to check out Miranda Foley's home in Gotham. Though if that lead doesn't pan out…"

"I'll check if the police have come up with anything new," Kid Flash decided before he vanished in a blur of red and yellow. Green Arrow sighed heavily as the speedster left. He suspected that if they failed to find the missing teens in time, it would be _three_ heroes the team would lose.

"He will be okay," Aqualad said as if reading the archer's mind. "As soon as we find Artemis and bring her home."

Green Arrow nodded, though that was the half of it. Robin was seriously wounded – there was no guarantee that he could even survive until the deadline. Time was ticking down so much faster than they even realised. Was there really any way that this couldn't end in tragedy? Green Arrow pushed that thought out of his head straight away. He point blank refused to believe that, and the moment that he started thinking that way was the moment that he gave up. And that wasn't going to happen.

"So, you managed to get in contact with Roy, then?" Green Arrow asked, his thoughts straying to yet another young hero that he had let down. "How is he?"

Aqualad hesitated for a moment before answering. "He is as well as can be expected. His search for the original Speedy is taking its toll on him."

"I just wish I could get through to him," the elder hero muttered dejectedly. "After all this time, the chance of Roy still being… I can't lose them both. The original or the clone."

"Red Arrow doesn't want to be a replacement," said Aqualad. "Not when he was created to betray the League."

"He's not a replacement!"

Aqualad gave the archer a pointed look. "Have you not already given up on finding Speedy? Do you not want Red Arrow back so that you can have some aspect of your partner still?"

Green Arrow spluttered. "I haven't given up on Speedy!"

"Maybe you should tell Roy that," Aqualad replied evenly. "Once we have rectified the current crisis."

* * *

 

Consciousness came back to Dick _very_ slowly. Just as he thought that he was finally awake, a wave of pain and nausea would send him crashing back into the blissful darkness yet again. Somehow he knew he that needed to wake up though – something bad had happened and he wasn't helping anything sleeping – so he kept trying and trying until finally he was blinking in the onslaught of a harsh light.

He must have groaned, because suddenly there was a shadow looming over him, encouraging him to open his eyes, though it was difficult to understand anything through the fuzz in his ears. "…ayson… that's it… Can you hear me?"

"Temis…?" Dick slurred, his tongue feeling heavy in his dry mouth.

"Finally!" Artemis cried, making him flinch at the loud sound. His head was pounding, making it difficult to think straight. He couldn't remember what had happened, nor could he figure out why Artemis the one waiting for him to wake up instead of Bats or Wally. And why did everything hurt so damn much?

Artemis vanished for a moment, and then reappeared beside him a second later. She gently lifted his shoulders and then slid behind him so that he was slightly more upright and leaning against her, pressing something to his lips. "Water," she explained gently when he didn't immediately respond.

The cool liquid felt so good that he almost choked on it, his sore throat craving it desperately. When Artemis took the cup away he actually whined, making her laugh softly. He felt her lean to the side as she placed the cup on the floor. "We haven't got very much, and I don't know when we'll get more."

Well that didn't make sense, Dick thought as his foggy mind still tried to process what was going on. Where could they be that wouldn't even have _water_? That was when the blurry outlines of their surroundings suddenly became very clear to the teenager. White brick walls. Big metal door. He was lying on a sheet of canvas that had no right to be called a bed. And was that a _camera?_ Since when were they in _prison?_

Dick tried to push himself upright, but a pain so severe he felt physically ill sent him dropping back against Artemis' shoulder. The whole world went black and he thought that he had passed out again, until he heard his fellow inmate's light scoldings.

They stayed like that for a little while, waiting for Dick to get his breathing back under control. The pain dulled back down to a burning sensation that just made him really want to cry, but he forced himself not to. He wasn't some little kid.

"You're temperature's come down a little," Artemis murmured as she placed a hand on his forehead. She still sounded worried though. _Was it really that bad?_ "Do you want to try sitting up again?"

Dick nodded, absolutely hating how reliant he was on her, but not exactly having any choice. Between them they managed shift around until they were side-by-side on the cot, their backs against the wall. "Gah!" Dick groaned as he finally settled back, his hands automatically going to where the pain was in his stomach. He was stunned to find the dark red stain on his shirt. "What th'ell 'appened?"

"You don't remember?" Artemis asked, looking at him in concern. "The school library? The kidnappers? Getting shot?"

"Huh?" Dick said dumbly, furiously trying to get his brain to work. He guessed that he did vaguely remember going to school… he'd been on the losing side of a violent dodge ball game… Devon had made some crack about him in French… and then Mrs Foley had come and got him… and taken him to the library… _oh._ Dick looked over at Artemis apologetically. "I'm sorry."

Artemis blinked at him. "For what?"

"For those things I said," Dick shifted uncomfortably, partially due to the _bullet wound_ , but mostly because he felt so bad about earlier. "For calling you a charity case and all that. I didn't mean it. I don't think of you like that."

For a horrible moment, Artemis just stared at him, completely dumbfounded. And then she laughed – a little hysterically, but Dick guessed that in a situation like this you just had to get your jollies where you could. Eventually she calmed down, though she was still smiling. "It's fine, really. I mean, I _was_ pissed, but then I realised what you were doing – distracting the bad guys. I still can't decide if that was insanely stupid of incredibly brave, by the way."

Dick grinned. "I prefer the latter."

"Sure you do, Richard," Artemis rolled her eyes. Dick started for a moment at the name; before the penny finally dropped that they were both in their civilian IDs. They weren't _meant_ to know each other.

"Call me Dick."

Artemis raised a brow. "Seriously? Of all the many ways of shortening the name Richard – Rick, Ricky, Richie – you decided to go with _Dick?"_ She paused for a moment, maybe recalling the past year when he had actively avoided her at school, and then smirked. "Actually, it kinda suits you."

Dick swatted at her arm, though neither of them admitted out loud just how weak the hit was. He felt terrible; which he guessed was to be expected when you got shot; and so very tired despite the long nap that he had just taken. He shivered in the cold, despite Artemis telling him that his temperature was high, and everything ached like he had the flu. He could see the scattering of first aid supplies on the floor, and he was pretty sure that if it wasn't for her, he would be a lot worse right now.

"You hungry?" Artemis asked as she scooted forward to the edge and leaned down. She returned with a tray loaded with a plate of grey lumps and the near-empty cup of water. "We got the five star dining experience."

Dick quirked a brow, looking from the tray to Artemis and back, his expression saying it all. His stomach rebelled at the thought of food, but he was pretty sure he hadn't eaten for a while and he would probably need to build up his strength up a little bit if they were to stand a hope of escaping. He picked up the half a bread roll. "Thanks." Artemis' belly rumbled loudly, making them both crack a smile. "You can have the… _whatever_ that is."

"You sure?"

"Definitely," Dick assured her, even as she was picking up the spoon with an eager look in her eyes. He picked at the half-stale insides of his roll like a bird and nibbled cautiously. "How long has it been?"

"Ugh, this stuff is disgusting," she grumbled once the plate was practically licked clean, and then shrugged in answer. "I don't know. I crashed a while ago once you were patched up, and I have no idea how long I was out. They've only given us one meal though, so probably less than a day?"

"Did anyone get you to make a phone call or something for proof of life?" Artemis shook her head. Unusual, but then again, they were on camera. "Maybe they showed the video feed instead."

"Maybe," she agreed, and then she drifted off, lost in thought. Dick abandoned his half-eaten roll as his stomach rolled dangerously, threatening to spill its meagre contents. He could feel his eyelids getting heavy, as if the conversation was really that exhausting. He saw Artemis chew her lip and forced his eyes to stay open. "There's something I've been meaning to ask… Back in the library – how did you know that I could fight? Your plan to distract the goons, it only worked if you had back-up, so how did you know?"

Dick smiled slyly. "The same way that I know your middle name is Lian; you're half-Vietnamese on your mother's side, and your failing epically in Calculus."

"You're a stalker?"

Dick laughed, but quickly regretted the action as it pulled at his wound. "Nah, I'm just good with computers – I kind of hacked your school file." Artemis' eyebrows rose practically to her hairline. "Don't worry, I do it to all the new kids at school. Bruce is paranoid like that. Once we had this foreign exchange student from Bialya that he was certain was part of this huge plot to kidnap me."

"Uhuh…" Artemis muttered. "You get kidnapped a lot?"

"Yeah, it kinda comes with being the ward of a billionaire," Dick shrugged. "It happened three times last year, though I don't usually get shot. That's a new one."

Artemis shifted again, looking a little nervous and he gave her a curious look. "I don't think that you were the target this time. After you went down and before I blacked out, I… I heard them talking. They said that they just needed you to buy time for them to set something up… for me… because…"

"Because you're Artemis," Dick finished, making her give him a guarded look. "I mean the superhero _Artemis,_ not Artemis Crock _Artemi_ s… Seriously, worst cover ID _ever._ "

For a moment, the blonde stammered to come up with a cover story or a comeback, but then she just sighed. "Yeah."

"Which means that I got kidnapped to prevent the Justice League from being able to actively look for you, and that there is probably some major super villain behind this." Dick summed up optimistically, letting his head drop back against the wall. His heavy eyelids slid closed as he mumbled "Oh, and the chances of us being found and rescued are slim to none."

Artemis sighed heavily. "I guess we'll just have to find our own way out."

"The perks of'being k'napped with'a shupershero…" Dick began to slur, his eyes still closed and his tired body beginning to fall asleep. He felt Artemis turn slightly beside him, her cool hand resting on his forehead as she made a clucking noise. He tried to wave her off, but his arm barely moved. "I'm jus'tired…"

"You're temperature's rising again," she muttered anxiously. "Maybe you should get some more rest."

"'Kay…" Dick agreed, but then he heard something that made his senses a little more alert. Heavy booted footsteps reverberated down a corridor, getting louder fast. "Someone's coming."

Artemis had heard it too, and he blinked open his eyes just in time to see her stand up and put herself between him and the door. He saw that she favoured her right leg as she settled into a ready position. Despite his exhaustion, Dick refused to just sit there completely helpless. He pushed himself to the edge of the cot, though when the room swam threateningly he decided to forego standing just yet. For all they knew it was just the next dinner delivery, though there was something a little too urgent about the pace of the footsteps approaching.

They came to a stop outside of the door. The sound of a key being jammed into an old lock echoed inside the small room, putting both teenagers on edge. A viewing slot ground open and a heavily accented voice barked "Back away from the door, girl."

Artemis glanced back at Dick and then growled "Make me."

The cell door opened outwards and a blur of movement entered, faster than Dick's tired mind could register. He heard a cry of pain and surprise from Artemis, and he tried to force his uncooperative legs to move. Just as he had made it onto his feet, swaying dangerously, a gloved hand clamped onto his arm tight enough to make him yelp. Once the room had stopped spinning, Dick saw that Artemis was pinned against the wall by one of the masked-men from before, his huge fist effortlessly wrapped around her throat. "Let her go!"

The man holding Artemis nodded at the goon who was currently keeping Dick upright, and loosened his hold. The blonde archer dropped unceremoniously onto her cot and curled up, gasping desperately. Before Dick could check if she was alright, he was swept out of the room, his feet barely touching the floor. Suddenly, Dick felt wide awake. "Hey! Where are you taking me!?"

His shouts went completely ignored, so he tried to focus on something useful. The corridor that they were marching down at warp speed looked like it could belong anywhere, just industrial grade concrete and strip lighting. They rounded a corner just as the doors of an elevator squealed open. Dick hissed in pain as he was spun around once they were inside so that they faced the doors, his vision blurring for a moment. The man who had attacked Artemis selected their floor, sending them from B2 to level 3.

"Move," the masked man ordered as the doors opened again. Dick was a little too slow to respond and got a shove in the back that nearly sent him tumbling. He was righted by a strong hand on his shoulder and frogmarched down another hallway. This one was above ground level and interspersed with thin windows on the right hand side. As they sailed past Dick caught the briefest of glances outside. The sun set over an expansive forest with a small river cutting through it. They were in the middle of freaking _nowhere._

Dick tried not to get disheartened as they delved deeper into the facility and away from the windows. Instead he watched and listened, as he had been trained, trying to pick up on the details that could maybe narrow 'nowhere' down.

Finally, after what felt like an age to Dick's battered body, they reached their apparent destination. They entered a large room that looked like a control centre of sorts. A bank of computers faced a wall of monitors, most of which were blank as if the security system was still being pulled out of decommission. The feed from the cell showed Artemis looking very grumpy though relatively okay on one screen, while another showed the outside of the elevator. Several more shots of random corridors and empty rooms filled other screens, but Dick could tell that there were plenty of blind spots.

Dick took it all in in a millisecond before he was spun and rammed into a chair with enough force to knock the wind out of him. He was so busy trying to remember how to breathe that he didn't resist when his hands were roughly forced behind him and zip-tied tightly. Once he had recovered he glanced up to find himself looking into a camera lens. A second camera was aimed at another masked man that was devoid of the tactical get up the others wore and had significantly less body mass.

But what drew Dick's attention was an emblem on the wall opposite. It was faded and barely legible in the low light of the room. Beneath it were the initials _C.E.I_. Maybe that could narrow down their location?

A shadow loomed over Dick and he looked up to see El Jefe – unmistakable, even with his mask. The fabric shifted as the larger man grinned. "You ready to talk to Daddy, runt?"

 _Bruce._ For the first time since he had woken up and realised where they were, Dick felt hopeful. The pain in his stomach didn't seem so bad and his head pounded a little less as he realised that this was his chance. He had to focus, transmit all the info he had and give Batman what he needed to send the cavalry. Piece of cake.

El Jefe backed off as the smaller masked man gestured to the camera man.

"Time's up, Mr Wayne."


	3. Part Three

** Part Three **

" _Time's up, Mr Wayne."_

The used car salesman was back, giving Bruce a million-watt smile even through his mask. The screen once again showed only his head and shoulders and very little of what was behind him. A team of GCPD's lab techs had combed through the footage from the ransom demand earlier, after their failed attempt to track the broadcast, confirming what Bruce already knew. There was nothing to go on.

" _Have you got my $100,000,000?"_ the kidnapper asked, though there was a glint in his eyes, as if he already knew the answer. Bruce clenched his hands beneath his desk, feeling so entirely powerless. This time it was just him on his side of the camera, Commissioner Gordon and Paula Crock waited out of frame with Alfred, while the team of techs worked furiously at their computers. _"Are we ready to make the transfer?"_

"Show me that Dick and Artemis are okay first," Bruce insisted.

The kidnapper sighed. _"It's always the same thing with you, isn't it Mr Wayne? You're beginning to make me think that you don't trust us with the little darlings…"_

Bruce growled. "Just show me."

" _Fine."_ The live feed from the cell filled the screen, showing Artemis pacing the length of the prison and occasionally glaring up at the camera. She looked okay aside from the slight limp in her step and the beginnings of a bruise on her neck, but Bruce quickly ascertained that something was missing. _Where's Dick?!_ The kidnapper reappeared on the screen. _"I figured that you might need some extra motivation, so I've brought along a very special guest. Smile, Richard, the whole world's watching."_

The screen changed again, and Bruce was relieved to see Dick scowling up at his captor. He was awake, which was an improvement on the last time Bruce had seen him, but now up close he could see the pain on his ward's face. A deep purple bruise ensnared his throat. The bullet wound was out of frame, but Bruce could see the way that Dick hunched over despite his restraints to try and alleviate the tautness created by his position. To top it all off, his skin was clammy and pale, and Bruce could see the fever in his dimmed blue eyes. "Oh, god…"

" _See! He's just peachy, aren't you Richard?"_ the kidnapper clapped Dick on the shoulder, making the teenager wince. _"Now how's about we get to the paying part? Or do my colleagues get to have some fun?"_

Bruce kept his expression a stoic mask, refusing to let any doubt or fear show. He was about to make the biggest gamble of his life – and it could cost him his son. But what choice did he have? "What is the account number?"

" _Excellent!"_ the masked man actually clapped before he rattled off a number. Bruce turned to a second laptop on his desk and entered it, giving the tech waiting beside it a brief glance before he hit enter. The machine made a congratulatory noise and the kidnapper stared at his own screen off camera as they waited.

Bruce didn't have the money.

Well, that wasn't strictly accurate – he _was_ a billionaire after all. But that didn't mean that he had piles of cash just waiting to be sent to the nearest kidnapper. He invested his fortune; spread it across accounts all over the world, turning millions of pieces of paper into ones and zeros in a computer mainframe. It simply wasn't possible to gather so much in one place in such a short space of time. But Bruce was pretty sure that that excuse wasn't going to fly with these guys.

And so he had bluffed.

He had pooled together as much as he could with Oliver Queen's help, and put it in to an account. This account had then been given to the best technological minds in the city (short of Dick, of course) who then designed a programme that would make the total appear to equal $100,000,000. Now was the moment of truth.

Bruce forced himself to appear calm, squashing any nervous tells and trying to slow his racing heart. He watched and waited as the transfer bar filled to 100% and the kidnapper nodded on the screen before him.

And then he raised his eyebrows, looking unimpressed.

" _Huh,"_ the kidnapper said, and Bruce felt his blood run cold. _"It looks like it's a little light, Mr Wayne. A lot light actually. Just what are you trying to pull?"_

Bruce opened his mouth to argue and bludgeon the man with Bat logic, but his ward spoke up instead.

" _What were you expecting?"_ Dick asked incredulously, even going so far as to roll his eyes. _"You ask for that much money in that shorter space of time… you have got to be the dumbest kidnappers I have ever had the privilege of working with."_

Bruce didn't know whether to beam with pride or yell at the kid to shut up – but he knew that Dick wasn't stupid. He had an angle, and Bruce decided to trust him.

" _Your demands are meant to be plausible, you know?"_ Dick continued before the masked man could interrupt. _"I mean, otherwise, what was the point of taking me in the first place? You're meant to do your research, figure out how much you_ can _get – not just pluck a number out of thin air! Amateurs!"_ He looked at the camera, right at Bruce. _"You see what I have to work with?"_

Bruce understood.

" _You gave Bruce twenty four hours, right?"_ Dick didn't wait for a response. _"Well, he's got $200,000 to hand in his personal accounts; $40,000 in my College fund, $20,000 in Aunt Esther's inheritance account and $12,000 from that Insurance pay out. So that's $272,000 easily available, but at a push he could maybe sell some stock, maybe sell a few subsidiaries. He's looking to offload that water works after that accident levelled a whole forest in Bialya, so say he managed to sell that – would only get about two-thirds its worth though, maybe $12,500,000? He could probably get Queen to buy Rivers Tech off of him, although to be honest that company is going nowhere. Oh, and you know, Ollie likes me so I bet he'd sell Bruce back all of his stocks in Queen Industries at about 5% mark-up, so in all in all you're looking at…"_

Dick looked to the ceiling as he totted up the numbers, the kidnappers stunned into silence.

"… _$67,345,207.16. Give or take."_

Bruce glanced at the computer screen where his account balance now showed its true previous amount. Dick was exactly right, down to the sixteen cents. The older man didn't know whether he should be impressed or worried by his ward's knowledge of his finances.

The kidnapper did the same double take that Bruce had, blinking dumbly.

" _So,"_ Dick muttered after a moment, and Bruce could see just how tired the boy was. That long spiel had taken the last of his strength. _"Now that we've determined that you were never going to get your original asking price, can we get to the bartering please?"_

" _Bartering?"_ the kidnapper asked, regaining some of his composure. _"You really think that we'll give Mr Wayne a second chance? He's missed his deadline and tried to trick us. There are consequences for betrayals of trust like that."_

" _You said that the world is watching, right?"_ Dick nodded at the camera. _"I guess you've got three options then. One: You cut your losses, take the money you've got and find a nice hole to bury us in. Trouble is, with a couple of keystrokes that payday your banking on can go right back to sender, and without leverage there's no guarantee that money will stay yours. The whole world sees you fail completely, two dead hostages and nothing to show for it."_

Dick paused for a moment to catch his breath. _"Two: You accept the ransom you've got, let me and Artemis go home and maybe Bruce lets you keep the money. I like that option best personally."_

The kidnapper laughed. _"You've got some balls, kid. But I don't like either of those."_

" _Then its option number three,"_ Dick replied evenly. _"You consider what you've got as a deposit. Give Bruce some more time and then do a face-to-face exchange for real cash instead of numbers on a computer. Banks are so easily hacked these days."_

The masked man rubbed his chin as he pondered over Dick's proposal. He looked off camera, probably conferring with the rest of his crew, and then he shrugged. _"You know, I think I'd rather just kill you."_

"No!" Bruce grabbed a hold of the computer as if he could somehow stop what he was about to witness. He couldn't watch another person he loved die; he still lived with the scars from when he was a child. He couldn't lose the last good thing in his life. He watched helplessly as a switchblade appeared in the kidnapper's hand. But then suddenly Dick kicked out and the camera fell sideways, the connection ending with an abrupt crash.

The screen went blank.

"What the hell happened?!" Bruce yelled. Gordon stepped forward and questioned the techs as Bruce got to his feet and started pacing. He wanted to get out of there, get to where Dick was and beat every one of those scumbags into bloody pulps. But more than that, he wanted, no, he _needed_ to know if his son was okay – if he was even still alive. "Gordon?!"

"We're still connected, but we've lost audio and visual," one of the techs spoke up nervously, fearing the wrath that was probably promised on Bruce's face.

"Which means?!"

"They can still see and hear us," the tech murmured.

" _Mr Wayne."_

Bruce returned to his seat, despite the nervous energy that he needed to work off. The kidnapper had reappeared on the screen, looking a little flustered. The camera angle was slightly different, and now more of Dick was visible. Bruce was relieved to see that no new injuries had befallen him, but now a thick piece of duct tape covered his mouth.

" _I believe we can come to some kind of agreement."_

* * *

 

After calling in favours and checking in with some of her more dubious contacts, Cheshire had found nothing to lead her to Sportsmaster. It was by sheer happenstance that as her leads had thinned she had gone back to Gotham and decided to check her father's old haunt. She hadn't really expected to find him there.

And yet there he was.

Cheshire stilled at the familiar sight, a flashback from her teenage years slapping her in the face. Before she had run away, once her mother had gone to prison, it had briefly been her job to collect him from this place on the bad nights. She gave her head a short shake to dislodge the memory. That wasn't her job anymore. She had forged her own path, she was _free._ The fact that she was here now, embroiled in family drama… that… that didn't mean anything.

The barroom was grimy and worn, like most places in the Narrows. Low lighting fought to break through the smog of smoke from its patrons' cigarettes and the whole place stunk of booze, tobacco and urine. The bar ran down the left hand side of the small establishment with a smattering of mismatched tables and chairs opposite. Sitting on one of the barstools about halfway down was the large frame of Sportsmaster, a glass of whiskey held loosely in his hands.

Cheshire took a deep breath of cold, autumnal air before she let the door close behind her. She then made her way to the bar and took a seat. The bartender gave her a curious look as he 'cleaned' a pint glass, so she ordered herself a drink.

"About time, Little Girl," Lawrence Crock grumbled and took a swig of his bourbon. "Wondered when you'd finally show up."

They were both in their civilian dress with several bar stools between them. Neither of them looked at the other and with their differing hair colours and looks, no one would ever have pegged them as father and daughter. And that was just the way Jade liked it. "You know why I'm here."

"Baby Girl's gone and got herself captured," Lawrence replied dryly. "And naturally you think of me."

Jade gritted her teeth. "The hired guns were your style. And they spoke Vietnamese. Is that really just a coincidence?"

"And how would you know that?" the older man asked. "Did your little league boyfriend call you up and ask for your help? You should be careful who you're working with Little Girl. A reputation as a snitch can be quite deadly."

"Like you care," Jade hissed, her hands clenching around her glass, nearly crushing it.

"Of course not," Lawrence snorted derisively. "I've already got one traitor for a daughter, why not another one? I blame your mother. She was always so soft on you both."

Jade did not appreciate the trip down memory lane. Her childhood was not a happy one. Usually she was so calm and playful; a lifetime of training to be an emotionless killer will do that to you, but there was something about her father that would always bring her anger and resentment boiling to the surface. She fought to keep her voice even as she said "You hired the mercenaries."

Lawrence grinned. "Very good. My employer even had the special request that they be Vietnamese."

"Why?" Jade asked, her eyes narrowing as she glared at the scratched wood veneer of the bar. And then it clicked. "A distraction. A red herring."

"Exactly," Lawrence smiled and finished his drink. He called the bartender over for a refill.

"Where did they take her?"

Lawrence Crock shrugged. "Wasn't part of my job. I was just in charge of the snatch and grab. The boss man didn't want me involved in what comes next."

Jade could feel her fury burning in her chest and she struggled to maintain an outward mask of indifference even as her nails dug into the bar. "Who's your employer?"

"You and I both know that I would never answer that," Lawrence laughed. "Even if I could."

"Do you have any idea what they've got planned for Artemis?"

For the first time since she had entered, Jade found herself looking into her father's eyes as he gave her a small, almost regretful, smile. "Baby Girl's gonna get the education I failed to give her."

* * *

 

Wally West was very aware of the timer counting down over his head. He could feel every second tick by as if they were physical punches to the gut. He hadn't slept properly since he had found out that Dick and Artemis had been taken. The few times that he had almost dozed off he would see the footage from the library and jolt awake at the sound of the gunshot.

He rubbed his eyes tiredly and glanced at the clock on the computer screen. It was less than an hour before the kidnapper's twenty-four hour deadline, and they had _nothing._

M'gann and Connor had returned from Gotham that morning and told them about the Foleys. _A literal dead end there_ , Wally thought, and then winced. He felt bad about the teacher and her family, he really did, but it was so hard to get past the fact that one of the few leads that they had had was gone and buried. Not when all he could see was his best friend and girlfriend locked in a cell waiting for him to hurry up and rescue them.

_Gah!_ It was just _so_ frustrating! How could a team of fricking superheroes with all their powers and gadgets have so _little_ to go on? Even their meeting with Cheshire hadn't panned out as Wally had hoped – Roy still had yet to hear back from his ninja assassin 'friend' and none of their attempts to track down Sportsmaster had worked.

That left Wally staring at a computer screen. He had gone over all of the forensics the police had gathered from the crime scenes, after using one of Dick's programmes to break into the GCPD computer system. He had combed through the videos from the library and the ransom demand – he had even tried his hand at hacking traffic cameras and followed the kidnapper's van up until it disappeared at the city limits.

But nothing had worked.

"Have you found anything?" Kaldur asked as he entered, M'gann and Connor following behind him. They had been out shaking down some of the League's contacts; very covertly. Green Arrow had decided that it was unwise for Wally to go too as he was so… volatile, at the moment.

"Trust me, you would _know_ if I had found something," Wally retorted irritably, and then sighed. "Sorry. Did you guys come up with anything?"

Kaldur shook his head and M'gann looked down at the floor. They all looked so tired and a little dishevelled after going so long without stopping, and Wally doubted that he looked any better. This search with all of its disappointing dead ends was taking its toll on all of them – Wally needed to remember that before he started snapping at them. It wasn't their fault; they were just as worried as he was. Even if they didn't quite know the real stakes.

He glanced at the clock. Twenty minutes.

"It would seem that Sportsmaster has dropped off of the grid," Kaldur explained. "No one knows where he is. And no one has heard anything beyond the rumour that someone big was planning to target the team."

Wally barely resisted the urge to punch something. He gestured at the holo screens behind him which showed footage from Gotham's traffic cameras. "I've been following the kidnappers' route once they left the school, but they switched vehicles at the outskirts and I lost them. All I know is that they were heading North West. Which narrows it down to about three-quarters of the country, assuming that they didn't get on a plane or something."

Connor jutted his chin at the screens. "Shouldn't Robin be doing this?"

Wally gritted his teeth and lied. "He's in Gotham with Bats doing the Dynamic Duo thing."

"Doesn't he realise that Artemis is _missing?_ " Connor said accusingly. "He should be here!"

"Yeah, well, he's not," Wally snapped, making his teammates give him stunned looks. He ignored them and turned back to his computer, "So deal with it and find something useful to do."

"Wally… are you… are you alright?" M'gann asked tentatively. Wally didn't answer and she seemed to quickly realise that it was kind of a stupid question. His girlfriend was missing and it was ten minutes to her deadline – of course he wasn't alright. She glanced at Connor and Kaldur and then the three of them found a computer terminal and made their last ditch effort.

The tension was heavy between them, making the large space feel very small as they worked. But Wally could care less about that right then. When they got Dick and Artemis home he could apologise and come up with some cover story to explain his weird behaviour. But he couldn't help but wonder as the clock counted down. What if they failed and Dick and Artemis were killed? Would the others even know that they had lost _two_ teammates? Would Batman reveal his identity as Robin, or would Wally be attending his funeral alone…?

_Stop thinking like that!_ He scolded himself. _They're going to be fine! We'll get them home!_

But even as he tried to tell himself that, the timer hit zero. A background programme he had had running on the internet bleeped and a live feed from kidnapper central grew to full size on every holo screen. A masked man grinned.

" _Time's up, Mr Wayne."_

Wally felt dread and fear build up in his stomach until he was pretty sure that he was going to throw up. He watched the exchange between the man behind Batman's cowl and the kidnapper, his hands clenched into tight fists by his sides. He saw the bluff fail and then listened in awe as Dick tried to talk his captors out of killing him. His heart stopped when the screen went dark.

"What the hell happened?!" Wally yelled, completely in sync with Bruce Wayne. His teammates looked at him helplessly, not having any answers. Worst case scenarios flashed through Wally's head as he imagined the man with the switchblade and Dick unable to defend himself. With cold certainty his traitorous brain convinced him that his best friend was dead and Artemis was lost.

But then the unexpected happened.

" _Mr Wayne. I believe we can come to some kind of agreement."_

There was duct tape over Dick's mouth, and Wally wondered what he could have said to earn himself that one. He was proud to see that the kidnapper looked a little shaken, even though it seemed to have cost his best friend the last of his strength.

" _You have twelve more hours to get my money. There will be no more extensions."_

This time when the screen went blank, Wally breathed a sigh of relief. They had more time, and he was pretty sure that Dick had been giving Bruce clues when he was spouting numbers earlier. But most of all, they were both alive and now had a chance of staying that way.

"What did the kid say to get them to change their minds?" Connor asked in disbelief.

Kaldur shook his head, looking at the now blank holo-screen curiously. "I do not know, but apparently he did not want it broadcasted to the world."

"Maybe he knows who Artemis is?" M'gann suggested. "He could have called them out on their real plan – the kidnapper looked very unsure of himself."

Wally had no idea what Dick had said, but he kinda wished that he could have done it without giving him a heart attack. It had worked though, whatever it was, and the speedster was grateful. He brought the video back up on his computer and rewound back to the beginning.

"What are you doing?" Connor asked.

"Grayson's a rich kid," Wally explained half-truthfully. He couldn't exactly say that Dick was trained by the Batman after all. "He's a high value kidnap target so he's trained to know what to do when he gets captured. If he gets the opportunity to talk to the outside world, he knows to tell us as much as he knows about where he is and who's got him – and they let him talk a lot. I'm betting there are clues here."

_Recognise: Green Arrow 08._

"You saw the video?" the archer asked once he had materialised, skipping all formalities. The team nodded as one. "Good. Batman's on his way – he thinks we've got a lead from the kid."

* * *

Artemis hated waiting. Taking a back seat from the action made her feel completely useless. And she _hated_ that feeling. So now, to try and bleed off some of her nervous energy, she paced her cell and glared at the camera. Her ankle throbbed at the abuse, but she ignored it. She would not show weakness. She would make her captors regret picking her as a victim.

Another thing she hated: not knowing. Without really knowing how long it had been since they were taken, she had no idea whether Dick had been taken for proof of life for the ransom demand, or if this was the exchange. Heck, the way this kidnap was set up, she doubted that there was even going to _be_ an exchange – just a dark hole to bury them in. Was Dick even coming back?

It was no wonder that she was agitated.

In irritation, she stepped too forcefully on her weak ankle and nearly ended up kissing the concrete. She just about caught herself, but it was enough to tell her that pacing herself to exhaustion may not be her wisest idea. With a despondent sigh she sat back on Dick's cot and settled for looking grumpy.

_Wally would hate it in here,_ she thought. She smiled slightly as she envisioned her boyfriend wearing a trench in the floor with his super-speed. Then she imagined what he was really doing; going out of his mind with worry, doing everything he could to save her, but not knowing if it would ever be enough. The smile slid off her face. _I bet he hates it even more out there._

Artemis couldn't believe that they had been together nearly a year now. It seemed like so long ago when he had run into the cave with his beach gear, that adorable streak of sun cream on his nose… She had thought that he looked hot in his beach shorts even then; she had just refused to admit it. Besides, annoying him was always so much fun – it still was.

God, she really missed him.

She wondered what her sister would think of her growing so attached to someone. Had her parents ever been like this? Somehow, she doubted it. Her family wasn't exactly the poster child of true romance and happy endings.

Artemis sagged back against the wall and tried to drag her thoughts away from her boyfriend. It had been ages since Dick had been taken away. Maybe… maybe it was time to think worst case scenario.

If they were right about Dick being the distraction, and if he was now no longer… _distracting_ … that meant that it was nearly time for the Big Bad to come and implement those unknown plans for her. She didn't want to know what that meant; nothing nice, obviously. She needed to get herself gone before the goons came knocking.

Without moving, so as not to give away her intentions to any voyeurs on the other end of the camera, she began cataloguing what she had. Was there anything that she could use as lock picks? As a weapon? If she could at least find a way to blind or disable the camera…

_Crap._ Artemis thought to herself, panicking ever so slightly. She flashed back to the Red attack on the cave when she had listed all the very valid reasons she had to be distraught. And then Robin, a _kid_ , had told her to get traught – and she had listened. Eventually.

Artemis grabbed up the dinner tray and climbed to her feet, positioning herself so that her impromptu weapon wouldn't be immediately visible. She would have hidden behind the door, but she doubted that these people would fall for that. They wouldn't open the door unless they could see her through the slot and she was standing back. So that's exactly what she would do. And then when they came in…

She would get out.

Well, that was the plan anyway.

The viewing slot slid back with a clang and Artemis saw the speedy guy from earlier glare through at her. She shifted her weight so that she was ready to move. The key twisted in the lock. The door opened.

Artemis froze.

Dick Grayson sagged in his captor's hold, his hands tied behind his back and a strip of duct tape across his mouth. He looked like death warmed over. When the goon shoved him into the cell, Dick couldn't even hold up his own weight and dropped to the concrete. Artemis just caught him before he could add a concussion to his list of injuries, the tray dropping to the floor with a loud clatter.

The two goons eyed the makeshift weapon, but made no move to punish her or anything. They just glared for a moment and then slammed the door closed.

"You're alive!" Artemis couldn't help but exclaim as she checked him over. She had been so sure… "What the hell happened?"

Dick made a muffled grunt through his gag where he had landed in her lap.

"Right, sorry," she murmured and picked at the edge of the tape. "Hang on a minute." Once she had a good grip, she ripped the tape off quick like a bandaid, eliciting a hiss of pain from the younger teenager. He took in deep breaths and opened his eyes to look up at her blearily. "Okay. Now what happened?"

"Keep that," Dick said instead of an answer, referring to the duct tape. Artemis gave him a curious look and then stuck it to the foot of the cot. "I've… got a… plan. Hands."

"Yeah sure, one sec," Artemis grabbed up her spoon from where it had been abandoned and used it to leverage open the zip ties enough to free his hands. It was then that she spotted what he was holding and she reached for it in disbelief. "And just _where_ did you get _that?"_

Artemis looked at the half-rusted key in the palm of her hand in wonder, though she was careful to keep it from the camera. With his hands free, Dick struggled to sit himself up. He gave her a tired grin. "There're… two keys. Picked one… let them lock… us in… with t'other."

"You're a genius," Artemis smiled as she pocketed the key, and then furrowed her brow. "But how did a rich kid like you learn to pick pockets?"

"Wasn't always… a rich kid…" Dick explained vaguely, his eyes unfocused. He looked like a puppet that had had its strings cut, his strength completely gone. She knelt beside him and hooked an arm around his shoulders, concerned by his too-high temperature and the shivers that coursed through his small frame. "I bought us… some… time…"

"Good, then you can rest," Artemis instructed. She wrapped her arms around his chest and half carried/half dragged him onto his cot. He groaned in pain, but didn't try to stop her, a testament to his exhaustion. He had passed out even before his head had hit the metaphorical pillow. "G'night, Grayson."

Artemis knelt in her place beside his cot and gathered up the remains of their supplies. Knowing that there would be an escape attempt in their immediate future, she double checked his wound and made sure that he was as good as he was going to get with what they had.

They'd get out of there just as soon as he woke up.


	4. Part Four

** Part F ** ** our **

" _You gave Bruce twenty four hours, right?"_

Bruce listened carefully to his ward's voice as he played the tape yet again. He had managed to escape the Manor and Gordon with the viable excuse of collecting more funds for the new ransom. He had then zeta-tubed straight from the batcave to Mt. Justice, pausing only long enough to adorn the cowl. Now he was forcing himself to be Batman and carefully keeping the anxiety from his features as he took in every detail.

" _Well, he's got $200,000 to hand in his personal accounts; $40,000 in my College fund, $20,000 in Aunt Esther's inheritance account and $12,000 from that Insurance pay out..."_

"That information is incorrect," Batman informed the gathered team and Green Arrow, his voice even and methodical. Kid Flash kept throwing him stunned looks, barely able to keep his own concern in check. But the boy was loyal to a fault and even under these conditions he had kept Robin's identity a closely guarded secret. Batman felt himself re-evaluating the young speedster, much as he had when he had first met the Flash. "I have studied Wayne's financials, and the numbers do not match up."

"The kid's probably in shock, spouting random crap in an attempt to save his life," Superboy said dismissively, and Batman had to mentally restrain himself from reacting. If Dick were some normal rich kid as the team believed, it _was_ technically a reasonable suggestion. The fact that it was miles from the truth didn't factor with the clone. "I want to find Artemis as much as everyone else – but are we sure we that aren't just clutching at straws here?"

Kid Flash answered before Batman could batglare Superboy into a puddle. "He wasn't acting like he was afraid for his life," the speedster pointed out, gesturing at the eerily calm expression of the boy on the screen. "He knows exactly what he's doing. What didn't match up?"

That last part was directed at Batman and he pulled up a transcript of the audio from the video. He highlighted several words and numbers. "The amount Richard estimated as his college fund is incorrect, there is no record of an insurance pay out and as far as I am aware, there is no Aunt Esther in either the Wayne or Grayson family trees."

"So why say that there was?" Miss Martian asked, clearly confused.

"He's spelling something," Aqualad realised. He squinted at the holo-screen for a moment, quickly drawing the same conclusion that Batman had. "College, Esther, Insurance. C.E.I. But what does that mean?"

"It could be an anagram…" Green Arrow suggested. "If you mix the letters around it makes 'ice' – but I don't get how that could be relevant, unless he thinks that the ice villains are involved somehow?"

Kid Flash shook his head. "It's not their style."

Superboy folded his arms across his chest, clearly unconvinced by the whole thing. "Or he's making this all up and getting us all hung up on some wild goose chase."

" _$67,345,207.16,"_ Batman said, unable to completely mask the anger in his voice. He sounded dangerous, his tone close to the threatening timbre he used on the street thugs on Gotham that sent them running in fear. Green Arrow flashed him a warning look. "That is the exact amount Wayne had been able to collect, down to the last cent. Richard figured that out in his head. Does that sound like someone who would waste a chance to get out all the information he could?"

Superboy was speechless for a moment, before he grunted one syllable. "No."

Batman nodded and then turned back to the holo-screen. He already had a search running to determine any meaning of the letters 'C.E.I', and he checked it for any hits. Out of the corners of his eye he could see Aqualad studying him suspiciously, and Batman internally scolded himself for the lapse. Miss Martian had her brows furrowed curiously, probably picking up on his distress and not understanding the reasons behind it. Even Superboy looked as if he may be starting to put two and two together. He would have to be more careful.

" _He's looking to offload that water works after that accident levelled a whole forest in Bialya, so say he managed to sell that – would only get about two-thirds its worth though, maybe $12,500,000? He could probably get Queen to buy Rivers Tech off of him, although to be honest that company is going nowhere."_

"This I believe to be location specific," Batman continued as he paused the video again. "There is no record of the event he mentions and there is very little in Bialya that could be considered a forest."

"Okay, so wherever they are, it's in a forest," Kid Flash concluded. "But even assuming that they are still in this country - that's still a lot of real estate to cover. And what's that about a water works?"

"Maybe that's the kind of building they're in," Miss Martian suggested uncertainly, beginning to get the hang of the clues. "Some place industrial, related to water in some way; like a dam or something. He mentions a 'Rivers Tech' – does that company exist?"

Green Arrow shook his head. "Not that I'm aware of."

"So Artemis and Richard are in a building, in the middle of a forest with a river, which is somehow connected to the letters 'C.E.I'" Aqualad surmised concisely. It didn't take a detective to know that it was very little to go on. They could all feel the sense of hopelessness in the cave. But they wouldn't quit, not when they knew about at least one team member being in trouble. "We should get started then."

Batman watched as the teenaged heroes split up and went to their computers and got to work. He began to feel more confident that they would succeed. It was not that he doubted their ability or drive, nor did he doubt his own. He would find a way to move heaven and earth if he had to in order to find his son. It was just that after counting down the hours to the highest risk gamble ever, after coming so close to witnessing Dick's execution, after a lifetime of always seeing the worst case scenario… it was hard to have hope. And without hope, it was hard not to despair.

Oliver placed a hand on Bruce's shoulder and the two shared a look before heading over to the zeta tubes. With a blinding flash, the archer was transported up to the Watch Tower, and then Bruce reprogrammed the transporter for the batcave. In his head, he kept hearing his son's voice, over and over, repeating the one line that Bruce completely understood the meaning of.

"… _to be honest that company is going nowhere."_

Dick was losing hope. He had seen where they were and he knew that the chances of his clues narrowing it down were slim.

" _To be honest, we're in the middle of nowhere…"_

Bruce closed his eyes as the bright light took him to the batcave, reading between the lines that only a father that truly knew his son could.

" _You won't find us."_

* * *

 

Spotlights roamed the Big Top as drums built up to their crescendo. The crowd cheered and clapped, smiling brightly in the way that only the magic of the circus could incite. On a podium in the centre ring, Mr Haly introduced the main attraction with his booming voice, barely needing the assistance of the microphone to be heard over the ruckus.

The spotlights finally settled on the group of performers perched at the top of the trapeze equipment, looking glorious, and oh so alive with their red and gold costumes and their beaming grins.

Dick didn't understand why his dreams would always take him back to this moment. It was so long ago… nearly six years now… He had long since mourned and accepted his loss… hadn't he? In the daylight hours he never brooded like Bruce did… he never felt depressed or alone (except on that one day a year… but that was understandable… right?) Yes, this was the worst day of his life, there was no denying that – but he had experienced plenty of horrors since. Why didn't Two-Face, or the Joker, or any other nasty of Gotham, haunt his sleeping world with as much determination?

Why must he always end up here, in the Big Top, watching the last few moments of the Flying Graysons?

The dream was different this time around though. Instead of watching from the centre pole as he had been that night, he was alone on the opposite perch to his family. John Grayson, his father, swung himself onto the bar and twisted into a catcher position, smiling at Dick encouragingly. The kid grinned back, forgetting what was really meant to happen… what had _already_ happened.

It was just another night on the tour, and it was his turn to fly.

It was stiflingly warm, a summer heat that got beneath your skin made you feel as if you were wearing a heavy winter coat that you needed to shrug off. He could feel sweat on his forehead and he worriedly rubbed his palms together with chalk to dry them. The net had already been taken away for the final daring act – it would do him no good to slip now.

 _But that wasn't right._ It had been spring… April. Cold in a city like Gotham that leeched the sunlight from the sky. And his parent's never let him perform without a net – he was only nine years old! So why…?

It didn't matter. His father was waiting, still swinging back and forth, upside down, his hands outstretched. What was he so nervous about? Why was he shaking? This was the best thrill a kid could have! The feeling of weightlessness. The power to fly without wings. True freedom. He craved this constantly, with every fibre of his being. Being grounded, being still, it just wasn't him. He was a robin. He needed to fly!

The trapeze flew towards him with a mind of its own, and he caught it with ease. The crowd's cheering grew louder as the spotlight trained on him and Haly announced him as the Boy Wonder.

Even from this distance, he could see the warm smiles of his family as they waited for him. His aunt and his uncle were embracing like newlyweds, while his cousin perched beside them and gave him a thumbs up. Then there was his mother, her blue eyes sparkling like the bracelet she wore that he had given her for her birthday.

How he missed them…

_But it was too hot… this wasn't right!_

Now was not the time for thinking. He closed his eyes and drank in the sounds and the smells of his true home. And then he stepped off the board.

The rush was phenomenal. Nothing could beat it. He felt the cool wind rake at his hair as the momentum carried him in a smooth arc, his signature cackle escaping his lips unbidden. When he reached the peak of the swing he let go and twisted his body gracefully, making the crowd _ooh_ and _ahhh_. Then he opened his eyes, and his father was there, ready to catch him.

Their fingers brushed, and for a heart-stopping moment, Dick thought that he had missed the catch. But then he felt his father's calloused hands grip his wrists, and Dick had never felt safer.

 _But it was so damn hot!_ His skin was slick with sweat, and the chalk was doing nothing to help. He was slipping, he could feel it. Maybe if they could make it back to the centre pole he could flip to safety… but… _why had they stopped swinging?_

The trapeze was still, his father making no attempt to get them moving again. They were just hanging, so very high up from the unforgiving ground. And he was slipping! Dick was melting, he was sure of it! It was so unbearably warm. He could hardly breathe. He felt as if he were on fire, the heat was so intense.

"Tati!" Dick called frantically, his father's grip slipping from his wrists to his hands. "Tati! Please!"

Dick stared into his father's eyes, trusting him so entirely to find a way to save him. To stop the fire. To keep him from falling. For a brief moment, the image flickered. The Big Top was replaced with the Gotham skyline. His father became Bruce, Batman's cowl pulled back so that Dick could see his defeated expression. They were barely holding on to each other by their fingers now.

" _I'm sorry…"_ Bruce Wayne and John Grayson said in unison. _"You'll have to find a way to save yourself, son."_

"Tati…?" Dick asked of them both. But then they let go, and he was falling. The grey Gotham sky became the red and yellow Big Top once more. The spotlight followed his descent with morbid curiosity as the wild crowds' cheers became calls for blood.

He saw the ground rushing up to meet him, promising him an end to the torture. But the drop seemed to go on forever. Flames covered his body, and he screamed in agony, hoping, praying, for the sudden stop so that he could just stop feeling. This little robin was going out in a blaze of glory.

He was burning. He was falling.

Forever falling.

* * *

 

"Did Red Arrow seem different to you?"

Kaldur glanced from the diminishing light of the zeta tubes to M'gann, who had her head cocked to one side as she watched the cloned archer leave. Connor gave her a sideways look, and irritation flickered across her green features. "I wasn't reading him or anything. It's just… well, something was a bit off about him."

"I suspect that it has something to do with a certain assassin," Kaldur smiled to himself, leaving the other two heroes looking slightly confused. They hadn't seen the way that Red Arrow and Cheshire acted around each other, so they hadn't picked up on the obvious vibe. "Though the news that he bought is somewhat disturbing."

Connor looked over his shoulder to where Wally was hunched over a computer console. The young speedster looked exhausted, yet determined, his green eyes glowing in the holo-screen's light. None of them had been to school that day and Kaldur doubted that they would be going tomorrow, not with the final deadline looming in less than ten hours. He knew that Wally had barely ate and hardly slept in that time. "Who wants to be the one to tell Wally?"

"I will," Kaldur volunteered. He had known Kid Flash the longest, aside from Robin of course, but Kaldur was beginning to think that the Gotham vigilante had a very valid reason for his absence. The Atlantean had suspected for a long time now that Wally knew Robin's true identity, and he knew that by the time this ordeal was over, the rest of the team would know as well. "Thankfully, we have other leads to follow now. That should soften the blow."

"I don't think anything could soften what's going to happen to Artemis," M'gann said dejectedly. And then she realised what she had said and clapped her hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry! I meant what's _planned_ for Artemis. We're going to find and rescue them before it happens. Of course."

Kaldur felt a slight breeze, and suddenly Wally was standing in their midst. He glared at M'gann. "What do you mean 'what's going to happen to Artemis'?! What did Roy say?!"

"Wally…" M'gann tried, but then faltered. She looked helplessly at Kaldur.

"Wally," Kaldur repeated, a little more confidently, drawing the speedster's attention away from the Martian. "Cheshire told Roy what she had learned from Sportsmaster. It is not the best news…"

* * *

 

"Did you find Sportsmaster?"

Cheshire pouted at the eternally serious archer with mock hurt. "Always so direct… No _'Hi, how are you?_ ' no ' _Wow, Cheshire, I missed you?_ ' You're beginning to make a girl think that you only like her for her contacts…"

Red Arrow glowered at her, making Cheshire smile behind her mask. "Just answer the question."

"My, my. We are grumpy, aren't we?" the assassin teased. She didn't know why, but it was always so much fun to rile up the red head. She was glad that he had come to this meet alone, without his junior justice friends. She liked it when it was just the two of them. "And here I thought that you didn't even _like_ my sister."

"A member of the team is in danger, of course I'm concerned," Red Arrow replied, eyes narrowing at her behind his domino mask. "I would have thought that you would be too, seeing as she is _your_ sister."

"Don't mistake my levity for apathy, hero," Cheshire retorted, with a slight growl that surprised her. She internally scolded herself. She must still be on edge after her encounter with her father. And that just wouldn't do. She paused for a moment to bring her tone back to the level. "And yes, I did find Sportsmaster."

"And?"

"And it was a distraction," Cheshire explained just about keeping the anger and dejection out of her voice. Red Arrow looked at her curiously, as if he could hear the undertone anyway. Maybe he was more perceptive than she had thought. "Sportsmaster was hired to facilitate the kidnapping with the specific request that the hired hands be Vietnamese so that the League would draw the obvious connection. Sportsmaster was then left to deal with anyone who would follow that lead. He knows nothing more about the attack or who's behind it."

Red Arrow quirked an irritated brow. "Except the fact that his own _daughter_ was the target."

"That didn't seem to bother him."

"Did he know anything about what they have planned for Artemis?" Red Arrow asked. Some distance away, Cheshire picked up on the soft scuffling of shoes on roof tiles. The archer cocked his head slightly, picking up on the sound too. She would really have to start giving the hero some more credit.

"Re-education," Cheshire answered. The scuffling grew closer and was joined by another pair of far heavier boots, and she took the moment to silently curse her father. She guessed that he had technically warned her, but still. In a millisecond, she closed the gap between herself and Red, a sai drawn and pressed to his throat. Even through the mask she could see the shock on his face, as well as the betrayal, which surprisingly hurt; but she didn't have the time to ponder her feelings or explain. "Just go with it."

"Well now, what do we have here?" a cocky voice rang through the alleyway. Cheshire didn't need to look up to know that Black Spider was hanging from the fire escape above them. A loud thump sounded as Hook landed behind Red Arrow and palmed his namesake like a thug with a baseball bat. "Looks like the cat's been playing with her food. You know that you're meant to _eat_ the mice, don't you?"

"Where's the fun in a silent kill?" Cheshire retorted. "You should know that cats like to play."

Hook scowled at her. "We've been hearing some disturbing things about you, Cheshire."

"Yeah, it sounds like you don't know who's side you're one," Black Spider agreed. He lowered himself, upside down with his web, and then twisted to land on the concrete on his feet. "It sounds like you've been telling the heroes some things that you shouldn't be telling them. Tell me, Chesh, has the _cat_ become a _rat?"_

 _Great,_ Cheshire rolled her eyes behind her mask. _Two Shadows who think I'm a snitch. That's just great._

"I'm no traitor," she growled, her hand tensing on the blade that she held to Red's throat. The archer was watching her warily, probably wondering why he hadn't attacked her already. Her stance was all wrong and he could easily over power her right now, but he hadn't. He was playing along. He was… _trusting_ her. And wasn't that a novel concept? "They came to me for information that I didn't have. I played their game, led them to believe that I was working with them. You showed up just as I was cleaning house."

Hook glanced past her at Black Spider, and then laughed. "I don't think we believe you."

"Seems to me that we interrupted your little date," Black Spider cackled. "It's a true romance, very Romeo and Juliet. The Arrow's fake sidekick and the assassin with daddy issues – a story for the ages. Shame we have to end it, really. But then again, I've always been a sucker for a tragedy!"

They moved as one. Cheshire grabbed a kunai from her pack and threw it with trained accuracy at Hook, the small blade embedding itself just beneath his collar bone. Red Arrow notched an arrow and fired an explosive compound at Black Spider faster than anyone she had ever seen. They moved so that they were back to back, her with two sais ready, and him with two arrows drawn and aimed.

Black Spider recovered from the blast. "Well, aren't you two a battle couple? Let's end that."

Cheshire launched herself at Hook, deftly avoiding the hook that he struggled to aim with his injured shoulder. She got in close, making it even harder for him to use his weapon of choice, engaging him in hand to hand combat. She was aware of Black Spider making life difficult for Red Arrow as the agile assassin dodged his arrows; explosive, foam or otherwise. Cheshire landed a blow to Hook's head that sent the larger man staggering back, and then she wordlessly switched opponents with Red.

It was as if they had been fighting side-by-side all their lives. They instinctively knew each other's moves, always there to help the other, never getting in the way. Maybe the past two years of fighting each other had taught them how to work together, but Cheshire suspected that it might be something more. She felt the rush that she had thought long since extinguished after years of contract killing. Her heart beat a little faster, and a smile graced her lips.

Within minutes, the two assassins were groaning on the ground, clutching at their various injuries. Cheshire told herself that she had left them alive to try and salvage some of her reputation with the League of Shadows, but deep down, she knew that was a lie. She just didn't want to see the horror and disappointment on Red's face. She had never killed in front of him before.

_Why do I care?_

"Not bad, hero," Cheshire deflected, masking her inner conflict. Red Arrow met her eyes for a moment, and then averted his gaze. Maybe he was just as confused as she was.

"I should go tell the team what you learned," he muttered awkwardly.

Cheshire grinned. "You do that."

 _Oh, this could be_ so _much fun!_

* * *

 

Dick jolted awake with a groan.

He felt too warm, his chest was tight, his head pounded and his stomach was burning. He shifted on the uncomfortable cot, his body aching and his fevered mind struggling to piece the fragments back together. His memory was anything but clear, but he remembered enough to know that he was in trouble.

" _You'll have to find a way to save yourself, son."_

Had that actually happened? _No, that was a dream_. There was truth to the words, but they had never passed either of his father figure's lips. The circus, the fall, that wasn't real. The bare brick cell though? - That _was_ real. And so was the bullet wound. He pushed himself up and onto his elbows, ignoring his body's many protests, and tentatively lifted the hem of his school shirt. A fresh bandage covered the wound, but he could feel the heat that radiated from it. It was infected. Badly.

With a bit more effort, Dick managed to sit up - all by himself - and he leant against the cool brick wall. The first aid supplies and their dinner utensils had been tidied away, probably by Artemis once she had finished patching him up again. She was now passed out on her own cot, sleeping restlessly.

Dick decided not to wake her just yet. He knew that he had bought them twelve hours, though he didn't know how much of that time had already passed. Besides, he was still exhausted despite his fitful sleep. He needed a chance to wake up properly if he was going to be of any use for what was to come.

He thought over his plan. He knew that the clues that he had been able to drop were unlikely to bring the team or the League right to their door, but he hoped that they would at least give them something to go on. That meant that he and Artemis would have to escape on their own. Dick had memorised the route from the cell to the control room, and on his return journey he had also spotted a second, less guarded room that contained computers. He already had the key, and the duct tape would hopefully solve the camera problem. Yet there was still so much that could go wrong.

But then again, he already knew that he wasn't going to survive if he just sat around and waited. He was going to run out of time soon. He was lucky that he was even still breathing.

It had been a major gamble, what he had done once he had stopped the camera from rolling. Short of playing the Robin card, which would be an absolutely last resort, what he had done was the next most desperate thing. He had called El Jefe and his goons out on their plan. He was mostly guessing, but he had said it with enough conviction to make it sound like the gospel truth.

Dick had told them that he knew that he was the buffer between the bad guys and the League. Artemis was the real target that whoever their boss was actually wanted. And said boss had yet to make his appearance. That meant that killing Dick right then would have destroyed their one defence against the League that were surely watching. And finally, he had admitted that he had given the heroes clues to find them.

He wasn't sure if El Jefe was just going to kill him in that moment or not. But no, the thug had just taped Dick's mouth shut and told the skinny guy to extend the deadline.

So here he was, still breathing. _Just._

Artemis shifted on her cot, clearly finding the canvas sheet a poor substitute for a bed. Gradually, she opened her eyes, took in her surroundings, and then looked over at him. "You're awake."

"So are you," Dick deadpanned, making Artemis roll her eyes as she sat up.

"I just meant… I wasn't entirely sure that you would," she explained cautiously. She was studying him as if he would break at any moment, her grey eyes full of concern. "When you passed out you had a bad nightmare, I think. You started thrashing about and hyperventilating and your temperature was _really_ high. And then you just went really still, like _creepy_ still. I thought you might…"

"I'm fine," Dick cut her off. It was clear that the experience had freaked the archer out, and he felt bad about that. And, to be honest, it scared him just as much as it did her. He knew that he wasn't in good shape, he could feel it, but he was hoping that if he didn't think about how bad it was, he would be alright. Blind optimism for the win. He changed the subject. "So, you ready to blow this joint?"

Artemis smirked. "I thought you'd never ask."

She was still watching him warily, which he appreciated, even if it was a little eerie, but now she was pumped by the prospect of imminent freedom. They shared a look, and then Dick pushed himself onto his feet. He barely swayed at all, and he silently congratulated himself, before taking the few steps to the door. He slid open the viewer as quietly as the old metal would allow and scoped out the hallway. _Empty._ "Clear."

"What's the plan, Einstein?"

Dick nodded at where the duct tape was still stuck to the cot. "Use that to blind the camera. They've only got about half the security set up, and no one's really watching the feeds. They won't immediately notice another blank screen. It should buy us a little time."

Artemis grabbed up the tape and stood on her cot so that she could reach the camera. She tossed the key that she had pocketed to Dick, throwing him a rather surprised look when he actually caught it. "So you open the door. And then what? Did you see an exit? Do you know where we even are?"

"Yeah… that's the tricky part," Dick replied, remembering his own despondent reaction to the view out the window. He waited for Artemis to cover the camera and then he stuck his arm through the viewer so that he could reach the lock. "We're kind of stuck in a massive forest in the middle of nowhere, and from what I've seen, this place is a maze."

Artemis blinked at him, looking freaked for all of a millisecond before putting on a mask of calm. "Okay. So we'll need to send some kind of signal to the League so that they can come get us before we freeze to death. Without getting caught. Getting caught would be very bad."

"That's what I was thinking," Dick agreed just as the key turned and the door squealed open. "Heh. Open sesame."

Artemis was by his side in an instant, peeking out into the corridor. When no armed goons instantly came running at them, she stepped out and gestured for him to follow. She was limping ever-so-slightly, her ankle still swollen from the bad twist at the school. "Okay, so, any idea which way?"

"Left," Dick directed. "Then it's the second door on the left, two rights, another left and then an elevator. But there's a camera on it and I think they might be monitoring who's using it. We'd be better off finding the stairs."

Artemis raised an eyebrow at him, clearly impressed. Dick just shrugged self-consciously. At least he hadn't told her how many steps it was. "Let's find the stairs."

The blonde archer took the lead, her posture tense and her senses on high alert for any signs of trouble. Dick was quite glad that he was behind her; he wasn't able to hide his own highly trained behaviour either. He wasn't exactly acting like the clueless civilian he was meant to be.

As they approached the corridor with the elevator at the end, Dick tapped Artemis on the shoulder to get her attention. He pointed to a door on the right, just outside of the camera's view, a faded symbol for stairs painted beside it. Silently, they changed course, Artemis taking point as she pushed through the swing door and checked both up and down. With a nod she turned to face him. "Which floor?"

The door swung shut with a thankfully quiet groan. "Level three," Dick replied, his stomach clenching painfully as he realised that that was five storeys and he wasn't exactly in tip-top shape. Artemis pretended not to notice his apprehension, which he was very grateful for. "The bad guys are set up in the main control centre, but I saw another room which I think is for communications. There will be something we can use regardless, and there are less guards than the other option."

"Either that or we wander around hoping to stumble across an exit before they find us," Artemis reasoned. She glanced at the painted B2 on the wall, and then up through the gap between the stairs. "To Level Three we go."

They started off with a good pace; not so fast that Dick was left behind, but nowhere near their usual speed. They made it halfway up before the younger teen was panting from the exertion, half-dragging himself up using the banister. Artemis slowed right down on the third flight. She winced minutely every time she put weight on her left foot. She looked at him over her shoulder in concern, not stopping for fear that they wouldn't start again. "Are you alright?"

It was a stupid question really. Nothing about the whole situation was really 'all right', but Dick knew what she meant. She was basically asking him if he was going to collapse soon, cause that would really put a dampener on their chances of escape. Dick ignored the pain and the dizziness and the fact that it was getting _so damned hard_ to breathe, and nodded. "I'm fine."

Artemis sighed. "No you're not."

 _No, I'm not,_ Dick silently agreed. But he kept trudging up the steps, refusing to admit defeat just yet. The hard part was yet to come. He would hate it if he was beaten by a couple flights of stairs.

By the time they reached Level three, Dick felt as if he gone through one of Black Canary's tougher training regimes. He staggered slightly at the top of the steps, and Artemis instantly caught his arm and kept him upright. She leant him against the wall beside the door, and then peeked through the window at the corridor beyond the stair well. She gave him almost a full minute before she asked "Which way now?"

Dick closed his eyes for a moment, stunned to find that his recollection wasn't immediate. He mentally traced the route the goons had dragged him down, struggling to reverse it in his head. He felt like his brain had been stuffed with cotton wool, clogging up his ears and making his mouth taste funny. "Through the doors, left at the second crossroad, third door on the right. It's set back a little and there were two guys outside."

"Stay close until we reach the crossroad, and then hang back while I take care of the guards," Artemis instructed as she eased open the door. Dick pushed himself away from the wall, testing how confident he was at walking unaided. "Got it?"

"Got it," Dick nodded, hating how the small movement made the world spin. He followed her out into the corridor, automatically watching her six as they moved. At one point he heard approaching footsteps and they ducked inside an empty storage room as a patrol walked past. The masked men went right where they went left, which gave them two less people to deal with.

They paused at the final corridor, and at Artemis' signal Dick found himself a recess to hide in as she continued on. He watched her until she disappeared from sight, and then he switched to listening. He heard a muffled grunt of surprise followed by several thumps, and then the subdued hiss of an automatic door and groaning as the two guards were dragged inside. Dick was about to step out of his hidey hole to help, when the sound of boots on concrete reached his ears. He lost himself in the shadows as another pair of heavily armed masked men walked past. He listened to them talk to each other in their native tongue, the tone indicating that something was wrong. Dick poked his head out just as one of the goons reached for a walkie.

Dick moved faster than he thought he was capable of at that moment, appearing behind the two men without making a sound. He kicked the walkie out of one goon's grip, adrenaline masking his pain at least temporarily, and then he dropped to the floor and took them both out with a leg sweep. He then flipped back to his feet and gave them both a boot to the head to make sure that they stayed down. These clearly weren't the same brand of mercenaries used in the kidnapping; just the regular mooks that the bad guys liked to hire to make their numbers look more imposing.

The vigilante picked up the walkie that had managed to survive his assault just as the automatic door whispered open and Artemis stepped out. "All…" she faltered as she took in the two downed goons. "…clear?"

Dick grinned and tossed the walkie at her which she deftly caught. "I'm gonna work on getting a message out to the League. Do you mind…?"

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'll clean up your mess and keep watch."

The adrenaline left Dick almost as fast as it had come, sending him right back to feeling dizzy and sick and… well, feeling like crap, basically. He walked through the door and found that he was right, it was a communications room that he had seen. A wall of equipment lined one side with two seats next to the main consoles. Dick gratefully dropped into the nearest one, sparing a glance at the previous operator before getting familiar with the tech.

It was old school. Just like everything else in this prison it looked like it hadn't seen an update in at least a decade. In that moment, Dick was secretly glad that Bruce had been adamant about familiarising him with older technology despite the modern teen's objections, otherwise he would have been rather scuppered right then. A newer laptop had been wired into the console, probably belonging to the goons. He quickly hacked into it as he set up the radio equipment.

Artemis had just dragged the last goon inside and piled him on top of the others as he pilfered the headset from the unconscious operator. They shared a look before she stepped outside to keep watch, the door closing behind her.

Dick took a deep breath. "Robin calling Justice League. HOJ/Watchtower. B01. Priority Red."

He clenched his fists and forced himself not to freak out. On the laptop screen the words ACCESS GRANTED flashed up and he began looking for blueprints as he tried to contact the League again. Nothing happened.

 _It's okay,_ Dick told himself as the building plans materialised on the screen. _The Watchtower tech is state of the art. It's probably just not compatible or something. But you know where compatible tech would be…?_

"Robin to Batcave. Override RG4. Priority Red."

A pause. Then: _"Master Richard? Thank heavens!"_

Dick almost choked on the relieved laugh that escaped him. The butler's British accent was officially the greatest thing he had ever heard. "Yeah, Alfred, it's me. Listen, I haven't got a lot of time. Are you tracing this call?"

" _The batcave computers are already triangulating your position now,"_ Alfred confirmed. Even if Dick had no idea where they were, soon Bruce would know, and the team, and then maybe, just maybe, they might have a way home. _"Are both you and Miss Crock all right?"_

His worry was clear even over the static of the connection, and Dick automatically went to give the comforting answer, but then reconsidered. Alfred always knew when he was lying. The teen had learnt a long time ago that it was best to just be honest with the brit for fear his wrath. "We're… surviving."

Not technically a lie; and the British do love their technicalities. Dick smiled to himself as he continued working at the computer, getting deeper into the building's systems. The bad news was this place was essentially Fort Knox. The good news; he may have found a chink in the armour. "I've found an exit, but well, it's not a _good_ one. We'll need picking up ASAP, tell Bruce…"

" _I will tell Master Bruce exactly where to find you,"_ Alfred reassured. The composed tone he used made it sound as if they were discussing travel plans for a social trip, and Dick found himself calming right down. It was going to be alright. " _Your friends have been working tirelessly to find you, I'm sure they will more than delighted to come pick you up."_

"Grayson!" Artemis hissed as she came back into the room, closing the door behind her. "Someone must have tripped an alarm or something because there are a whole lot of goons coming this way! Did you get a call out? We've got to move now!"

" _The trace is complete, Master Richard,"_ Alfred informed him. _"Help will be with you soon."_

"Thanks," Dick replied and ended the call, and then turned to Artemis. "I've got a plan, but you're not going to like it."

Artemis glared at him, and then glanced at the door and the sound of the approaching army. "What kind of plan?"

"How do you feel about getting caught?"


	5. Part Five

** Part Five: **

_Cheshire Eats Insects._ A grinning red and white mask opened its maw and swallowed a tarantula. _Chicken-whizee Enchilada Industries._ Dancing chicken nuggets jumped out from behind the mask and onto a production line that sent them tumbling into the dark. _Crock's Empty Idaho._ Grey eyes and blonde hair appeared, full lips widening into a bright smile… And then the spider returned, crawling on her face, and Artemis started screaming, begging him to help her…

"Wo-agh!" Wally snorted as he bolted upright. For a moment he could still hear her panicked voice, and Chicken Whizees danced across his vision, but with a quick shake of his head he swept the cobwebs of the dream away. The realisation of what he had just done hit him like a ton of bricks.

_I fell asleep._

_Oh God! I fell asleep!_ Wally looked around wildly trying to find a clock before remembering that he was sitting at a computer console. 3am. _Five hours._ His best friend had five hours to live and his girlfriend could be long gone by then. And he had been dreaming about _food._ In all honesty, he was a speedster with an exceedingly high metabolism that couldn't actually remember the last time that he had ate, but that didn't make him feel any better. _I'm a terrible person._

He glanced around the room to find his friends hunched over their own computers. He couldn't believe that they had let him fall asleep, even if it was only for half an hour. His Uncle Barry had come to the cave a few times since this whole thing had started, trying to convince him to eat and get some rest – didn't they get it? He wasn't the one that needed help here!

Wally took a deep breath, trying to get his irritation and exhaustion to focus on something productive. He checked on the programme Batman had left running and began looking through the list of hits on the letters C.E.I.

Competitive Enterprise Institute. _No_. Central European Initiative. _No_. Common Electrical Interface. _Double No._ The IATA code for Mae Fah Luang International Airport, Chiang Rai, Thailand. _God, I really hope not._ The teen speedster huffed in frustration. They had so very little to go on – this _had_ to mean something! Cycle Engineers Institute. _No._ Chicago Eel Imports. _Hell no._ Carnahan Energy Incorporated. _No…_ wait…

Wally clicked on the article that the search engine had pulled up and began to skim read. It was at least ten years old, an archived clipping detailing the collapse of a large energy provider operating in the Midwest. The teen skipped over the parts about job losses and new market gaps, looking for one detail in particular.

' _Carnahan embraced the Green Policies, quickly establishing a wind farm off of the East coast of Rhode Island, and building several dams and hydroelectric power stations across rural parts of the country. These projects may have been detrimental…'_

"Dams…" Wally muttered aloud, opening up a new window and beginning the search again. He set the parameters of Carnahan Energy Inc. facilities that were decommissioned, and was rewarded with a holo-map with eight pulsing red dots. "Oh my god… I think… I think I've almost found them!"

"Wally, are you okay?" M'gann asked, flying across the space and touching down beside him. She blinked at the map, her head cocked to one side. "What's this?"

"Those are the eight possible locations of Artemis and Ro-ichard," Wally almost flubbed, though M'gann seemed too caught up in her own excitement to notice. She called over the others and the four remaining members of the team all stared at the projection. Wally explained how he had figured it out from 'C.E.I', a smile brightening his drawn and tired features. "I'll cross reference the geographical factors, see if we can't narrow it down."

A few keystrokes and a loading bar later, two of the dots vanished.

Wally slumped a little, the others sighing in disappointment. Kaldur, level-headed as always, stated calmly, "That is still a lot of ground to cover, though it is a definite improvement upon ten minutes ago."

M'gann smiled brightly. "Exactly! We still have plenty of time!"

Every screen went blank and then filled with static for a moment. And then a masked face appeared. _"Looks like there's gonna be a change in the timetable, Mr Wayne."_

"No… it's too early…" Wally muttered in denial, glancing at the clock. It was 3.30 now, they still had until eight!

The man on the screen pulled back from the camera, and Wally realised that it wasn't the same negotiator from earlier. This man was thicker built and had a rougher voice. The way that he held himself, Wally recognised him from the school footage that he had analysed repeatedly earlier. This was the kidnapper's team leader, the head-goon.

" _It seems that the brats didn't like their accommodations anymore,"_ the head-goon explained sarcastically, stepping right back and to the side of the frame, allowing his audience to see Artemis and Dick. The two teens were on the floor, back to back, their hands tied together. They were both slumped forward, clearly unconscious. Wally's hands clenched into fists in anger and fear. _"I thought it was about time that they learned to behave, don't you agree?"_

" _You don't want to do this,"_ Bruce Wayne's voice came over the connection, sounding both scared and threatening. Wally had never heard the Batman sound so freaked out before. _"We've almost got the whole ransom together. Please, don't hurt them. Just give us a little more time."_

" _Umm…_ No." the head-goon replied with a sneer. _"These little runts are more trouble than they're worth, and we've grown tired of waiting. Besides, we already have what we want."_

Wally's blood ran cold. Did that mean that the Big Bad was already there? Was he about to watch his best friend's murder and then lose his girlfriend to some sick psycho's re-education? _This cannot be happening._

" _There has to be something, whatever you want, you can have it, just_ please _, don't hurt my son,"_ Bruce Wayne pleaded, sounding desperate. Wally couldn't believe it. _Batman_ was _begging_.

" _I think you're mistaking this for a negotiation, Mr Wayne,"_ the head-goon retorted, unfazed. He then gestured off camera at one of his men. _"Put him on mute. This show doesn't have audience participation."_

Wally barely acknowledged the hand that Kaldur placed on his shoulder as they watched what was about to happen, completely powerless to stop it. Connor had wrapped his arms around M'gann who was crying quietly beside him. On the screen, the head-goon crouched down beside Dick, grabbed a fistful of his black hair and pulled his head back. The captive teen hissed between his teeth and blearily opened his eyes. He didn't looked good; his skin was pale and his face glistened with sweat. His lips trembled as if he was scared, but then Wally realised that he was... counting? _Counting what?_

The head-goon grinned and drew his pistol, pressing it to Dick's temple. _"Any last words, runt?"_

" _Yeah,"_ Dick grinned. _"You should really check that our hands are tied."_

Everything went black, and for a microsecond Wally thought that the camera had broken again. But then he realised that the lights had gone out as the sounds of a struggle echoed over the connection. Some distance from the camera, surprised grunts and the slaps of fists on flesh sounded. Closer than that came the sound of bones breaking, a pained shout, and then three gunshots.

_BANG. BANG. BANG._

" _Chết tiệt! Rằng con vật nhỏ bé bắn tôi!"_

Wally held his breath as he waited patiently for an explanation – or at the very least a confirmation that Artemis and Dick were not dead. M'gann had stopped crying. The whole team waited to find out what the hell was going on.

Finally the lights came back on. The head-goon had disappeared from frame. Only Dick remained seated on the floor, eyes alert and panting slightly. In his hands he held the gun that had been pointed at his head only moments before. He looked past the camera. _"You alright?"_

" _Yeah. Nice shooting, Grayson,"_ replied Artemis, and _man, was it good to hear her voice._ Dick grimaced and dropped the gun. In the background the groans of several wounded mercenaries could be heard. Dick twisted to check on one of them, wincing and hugging his gut as the movement pulled at his wound. _"Are you okay?"_

" _Ow."_

" _Care to be more specific?"_ Artemis asked as she crouched down beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

" _Nope. Ow pretty much covers it."_

Artemis rolled her eyes, and then hooked an arm around Dick to help him onto his feet. He didn't look like he would be staying standing for much longer. _"Time to get traught, Sundance. These guys won't stay down for long and I'd like to put some distance between us."_

" _Kay,"_ Dick agreed and allowed himself to be helped out of frame and presumably out of the room.

Wally finally remembered how to breathe. _They're okay,_ he told himself, trying to reassure his too-fast heart and frayed nerves. _They're okay, and they're freaking escaping without you!_

It was time to get out there, and bring them home.

* * *

 

" _That little asshole shot me! Gah! My leg!"_

Bruce Wayne continued to the watch the kidnappers' feed even after Dick and Artemis had fled. He felt pride and relief battle for precedence in his chest as he listened to the aftermath of his protégé's daring escape. He could tell that at least two of the mercenaries had been kneecapped by Dick's sharpshooting (though his son's skill with a firearm was far from turbing) and several more were bruised from Artemis' assault.

" _Find them! Find them now!"_ The leader of the kidnappers ordered as he lumbered into frame, clutching the hand with at least three broken fingers to his chest. He bent down and picked up his stolen gun, scowling in anger. He then glanced at the camera, only just noticing that it was still recording. _"Kill the boy. Grab the girl. And cut this fucking feed!"_

Two seconds later, someone must have complied as the computer screen before Bruce suddenly went blank. The Gotham billionaire sagged in his seat and tried to slow his racing heart.

Around him, the tireless techs of the GCPD buzzed about as they continued in their efforts to track the elusive broadcast signal, even though everyone there knew that it was hopeless. Commissioner Gordon had left a few hours ago to spend some time with his family, relatively assured that the ransom call would not be until morning. Someone would have contacted him by now though, and being the good man and straight cop that he was, he would be returning here soon.

That left Bruce a very small window.

He had not slept; such a luxury he could not afford himself while his son was missing. Instead he had split his time between helping Lucius Fox gather the funds, check in with the team and surreptitiously follow his own leads. He had been at his desk when the video had come through, however moments before Alfred had appeared at the study door looking apprehensive.

They had just come so close to witnessing their boy's premature execution; and although Bruce could see his relief at the aversion reflected on the aging butler's face, both knew that it was far from over. The two teen heroes had escaped their captors, but how long could they evade them?

Bruce nodded at Alfred and the pair of them headed out into a quiet corner of the Wayne Manor. The moment that they were out of earshot of the police Bruce asked "What is it?"

"Master Richard made contact," Alfred replied succinctly. He took a slip of paper from his jacket pocket and handed it over. "I was able to trace the transmission and determine his location as of fifteen minutes ago."

Bruce almost smiled, something that he had not done in nearly two days now. He opened the note, eyebrows raising as he translated the co-ordinates. "Colorado?"

"Indeed sir," Alfred confirmed. "The young master also informed me that his planned exit was less than ideal. Might I recommend the immediate dispatch of the team?"

Bruce hadn't waited for the butler to finish the sentence. He was already striding toward the grandfather clock in the living room. He trusted Alfred to run any necessary interference with the GCPD and Gordon when the commissioner arrived. Batman was needed elsewhere.

It was time to bring Robin home.

* * *

 

Artemis ran as fast as she could while she half-dragged Dick beside her. She knew that the younger teen was in no condition to be running for his life, but right now they didn't exactly have much choice in the matter. Every step she took on her left foot sent shockwaves of pain up her leg, but it was nothing compared to the agony that Dick was going through, his suffering evidenced only by the groans that escaped his lips on every wheezed exhale.

But he was still conscious, which was a major plus, as the archer had no idea where she was going. "Which way?"

"Down," was all Dick managed to grunt for the moment, but Artemis had enough to know to retrace her steps back to the stairwell. They were still on the same floor as the control room, and even with their brief head start she could hear the sounds of their pursuers rallying behind them. It wouldn't be long before they caught up – they needed a way out _now_.

As they ran she caught a quick glance out of a window, getting her first good look at where they were. It was dark outside, but a bright moon and a smattering of stars illuminated a large expanse of forest with a wide ribbon of water slicing it in half. _Great._

The swing door for the stairwell appeared on their right and Artemis veered into it and shouldered it open. They both stumbled at the violent action, Dick making a whimpering sound that she was pretty sure he wouldn't usually allow himself. She muttered an apology and adjusted her hold of him as they began their descent down the concrete stairs. To keep herself balanced and to stop them from taking a tumble she leaned heavily on the handrail; her other hand wrapped around Dick's waist and his arm slung across her shoulders. "Which floor?"

Dick gritted his teeth to stop a shout from escaping his lips as they hit level two and spun to continue downwards. His eyes were squeezed shut as if he were on a terrifying rollercoaster ride, his trust placed entirely in her to guide him. They had reached level one before he ground out an answer. "B1. Left. Maintenance Corridor Alpha. Second right. Third door on left."

Artemis nodded, and then looked up as she heard the swing door on the third floor smash open and booted feet pound down the stairs. The goons shouted at each other in Vietnamese which she automatically translated.

_There they are! Get them! Remember – the boss wants the girl alive!_

Like she was going to let that happen. She doubled her pace as best she could, practically having to carry Dick as his lethargic legs failed to keep up. The moment she hit the right floor she slammed through the door hard enough to dent the wall and swerved hard to the left. This time, Dick didn't complain at the jostling of his wounds and she glanced down to check on him. She could still hear his erratic breathing, but it was clear that he was far closer to passing out than not. "Come on, Grayson. Stay with me."

"Gergh," he grumbled in reply,which she took to be a sound of consent rather than an involuntary grunt of pain. She followed his directions until she ended up at a door marked as a maintenance access. She heard the shouts of their pursuers getting closer and grabbed the handle.

"Shit! It's locked!" she cussed, her panic getting the better of her. Beside the door on the wall there was a small box with a keypad and screen, the words ENTER PASSCODE beside a defiant red light. She didn't know what kind of exit Dick expected to find in a maintenance room, but for the moment that was beside the point. The goons were getting closer and she really didn't want to get caught again. This was apparently their best chance of avoiding that, and the damn door was locked!

Dick shifted in her hold and reached toward the keypad. His hand shook as he tried to pry the face off, but he couldn't get his fingers to work. Artemis realised what he wanted and leant him against the wall so that she could free up both hands. She then took the face off of the box, revealing a whole bunch of wires that she had no idea what to do with. She looked helplessly at the younger boy to find that his eyes were open and little more alert. He gave her a wan smile and began fiddling with the wires, just as the thumping of many pairs of booted feet echoed down their corridor.

"You might want to hurry up with that, Sundance," Artemis muttered as she looked over her shoulder towards where their pursuers were coming from. She then heard a congratulatory beep and the click of a lock. She glanced back to see Dick giving her a very watered down version of his bright grin, and she eagerly opened the door. Dick made to follow her but staggered, so she grabbed him by the waist again and got them both across the threshold. She shut the door behind them and Dick quickly began working on the control panel.

It was then that she got a good look at where they had ended up. The room itself was huge, a cavern that stretched over three floors and echoed with every tiny sound. They stood on a metal platform where the middle floor would be, a network of thin ladders and catwalks leading off and around the massive space. Artemis stepped up to the edge and looked down to find several unused turbines sitting docile beneath them, a spider's web of pipes tunnelling every which way. She could hear the sound of running water, and suddenly got a very bad feeling of what Grayson's idea of an exit could be.

Behind her Dick turned away from the control panel and leaned heavily against the door. Already their pursuers had found them and hammered uselessly against the now firmly locked door. "That should keep them out for a while."

"What now?" Artemis asked, though she already feared that she knew the answer. She turned as well so that she leant against the metal railing and faced him, temporarily taking the weight off of her sprained ankle. She studied the other teen now that they had earned themselves a moment of respite. Dick looked terrible, which was an understatement. He was pale and shaking and struggling to hold up his own weight even as he leaned against the door. The dark stain on his once white shirt was wet again with fresh blood – he had obviously torn her less-than-professional stitches again.

But he was still standing, and she was still going along with his somewhat crazy plans. She briefly wondered why. After all, she was supposed to be the experienced hero here – he was just a civilian she was meant to protect. So why did she follow his orders without question? Why did she automatically turn to him for advice and answers? It was as if she were back in the cave on the day of Red attack, blindly following Robin as she struggled (and if she were honest, _failed_ ) to keep her panic in check. It was in that moment that it _finally_ fully clicked.

"Open that hatch there," Dick instructed, pointing to his left at a large pipe that protruded from the wall and led downwards past the turbines. She gave him a less than pleased look and then did as she was told, twisting the valve like handle with an unoiled squeal. With a lot of effort she managed to wrench the hatch open, revealing a torrent of water thundering through the pipe.

She glared at him over her shoulder and Dick gave her that smile again. "It's running at half-speed as the plant is decommissioned," he explained as if that fact made it all okay. "It leads straight out into the river."

"The river," Artemis repeated incredulously. "In the middle of October, at ungodly o'clock at night, with no guarantee of friendly rescue?"

A particularly strong hit against the door made Dick flinch. "Would you rather stay here?"

"No," Artemis agreed. She looked down at the water running through the pipe and then back at Dick, assessing his condition. "But can you… can you even…?" _Can you even survive this?_

"I'll be fine," he reassured her, though she was pretty sure that they both knew that he was lying. He pushed himself away from the door to walk over to her, but stumbled. She met him halfway and held him up, meeting his blue eyes that were still beautiful even when dulled by fever. "Help is coming, I promise. Once we get out of here, we just need to find a place to hide and wait. You'll keep us safe, I know you will. You're a hero, remember?"

Artemis held his gaze for a moment, amazed by his confidence in her. And then she nodded. "I'll keep us safe."

She helped him over to the hatch, keeping a grip on his arm as he climbed over the metal railing and onto the outside of the pipe. He dropped his legs into the opening, flinching at the water drenched through his pant legs and endeavoured to steal his shoes. _"Jesus Christ that's cold!"_

"Too late to back out now, Grayson," Artemis lightly teased, even though part of her hoped that he would. This plan was _insane!_ Okay, so it was currently their only chance, _but still!_

Dick grinned. "See you on the other side."

"You'd better," Artemis threatened. The younger teen gave her a mock salute and then dropped into the pipe and vanished. She hastily followed after him, hissing as the freezing water assaulted her legs. She was just about to lower herself down when the door to the room finally gave and several armed men came piling in. She gave them a quick smirk and then let go of the edge of the hatch as bullets ricocheted off of the metal.

And then she was being swept along on the world's most terrifying water flume. It was level for a moment before the pipe twisted downwards at a ninety-degree angle and dropped her into the depths. She couldn't help the scream that escaped her lips, but all it earned her was a mouthful of water. She spat it out and learned to keep her mouth shut as she was blindly led through the system. In the pitch blackness she couldn't see the twists and turns and every sudden direction change made her stomach flip as if she were leaving it behind.

The ride lasted mere seconds before she was shot out of the pipe like a bullet from a gun. She felt cool air and saw the stars for but a moment before the river loomed up to greet her. She had the sense to keep her legs straight and together as she cut through the surface, but the impact still felt as if she had hit ice rather than water.

All the air was involuntarily expelled from her lungs as the river wrapped her in its freezing embrace, dazing her and leaving her sinking in the darkness.

* * *

 

Wally shivered violently, feeling as if someone had just walked over his grave.

The bio-ship was warm, as it always was with its environmental systems automatically adjusting to keep its passengers comfortable, but Wally couldn't seem to shake the deep cold that had settled seemingly into his very bones. Something was very wrong. He didn't know how he knew, but he did, and it was setting his natural need to be constantly moving off big time. He was pretty sure that he was close to vibrating his molecules through the seat.

It had been less than ten minutes since Batman had appeared on the cave's screens and informed them that he knew where Dick and Artemis were. The team had been discussing which of the six locations Wally had found to investigate in the aftermath of the video, but then the Dark Knight had appeared and immediately narrowed it down to one.

The pulsing red dot in Colorado. The one that Wally had been the most inclined to choose. Call it a sixth sense, call it deductive reasoning; either way, the team had their location and were suited up and ready to go in minutes.

Now they rode in silence, all caught up in their own thoughts and worries for their teammate. M'gann was at the helm, seated regally as always with her hands on the controls. She wore the stealth version of her costume, as they all did, her red hair and green skin hidden by the hood that she had already pulled up. Connor had taken his usual seat beside her, his cold blue eyes glaring out of the window at the scenery of America's Midwest beneath them as they soared past. Kaldur took the seat in front of Connor, his arms folded and a pensive look on his dark face.

No one brought up the fact that M'gann had automatically woken the bio-ship with all six seats; Robin's and Artemis' glaringly empty as they zipped towards their destination. Wally found himself in the middle of the two seats, as if to hammer home the fact that he was all alone.

 _But not for long,_ he forcefully told himself, purposely turning his seat so that he wouldn't have to look at their vacant spaces. They would find Dick and Artemis, bring them home, and everything would be okay.

The brief that Batman had given them had been by its very nature, brief. Wally understood that the Gotham vigilante was short on screen time as he was expected to perform the role of Bruce Wayne. Even for the man of few words though, he had said very little. For that Wally had been grateful. He had needed to get out of the cave - standing idle when they knew where they were would have driven him to distraction, especially with the strong feeling of not-rightness that hummed through his entire body.

The goal of their mission was to retrieve Artemis and Dick, obviously, but the emphasis was on 'covert'. The aim was to track down the escaped captives and get them out, hopefully without being seen at all. Wally assumed that the bat with all his contingency plans already had a cover story for the teenagers' miraculous recovery prepared, but the speedster couldn't honestly say that he was thinking that far ahead. All that mattered was that he got his girlfriend and best friend back.

"We're approaching the co-ordinates now," M'gann informed them, and Wally leaned forward to see out of the window. Below, a massive carpet of trees spread out in every direction, the landscape relatively flat but with a few tall outcrops of rock poking out in places. The river ran directly below the ship, and as M'gann slowed the craft down to find an ideal place to land or drop them, the outline of the C.E.I facility loomed out of the shadows.

"Can you find Artemis and Richard?" Wally asked. It always felt weird when he had to use Dick's full name. M'gann's eyes glowed green as she accessed her telepathy. She then blinked, her eyes returning to normal, before she closed them again and communicated with the bio-ship. "Well?"

"They're out of my telepathic range," M'gann replied dejectedly. "And the bio-ship is picking up several human heat signatures in the woods. She can't differentiate between the bad guys and Artemis."

Wally gritted his teeth as he tried to control his frustration. Thankfully Kaldur spoke up and took the lead, his voice calm and controlled. "Miss Martian, put the ship in camouflage mode and find us a place to land. Establish the mind link. We will search for them on the ground until they come within your range."

M'gann nodded and followed her orders, the whisper of her telepathy brushing Wally's mind as they were all linked up. And then they were lowering into a clearing, and the speedster felt his feet itch at the need to get out there and find them.

* * *

 

The darkness was absolute.

Artemis had no idea if her eyes were even open or closed. All she knew was that it was so cold it felt as if her skin was being burned off and her lungs felt as if they would burst. Her equilibrium was screwed as she floated in the inky blackness. She knew that she needed to go up and get some much needed air… but which way was even up?

She wanted to curl up into a ball and savour the last of the warmth that her body had, but her survival instinct kicked in and forced her into action. She pushed out with her arms and jerked her feet awkwardly, taking a guess and praying that she was going the right way.

Finally, the darkness started getting a little lighter, and she doubled her efforts at the promise of an escape. It felt like forever, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes since she had gone under. With a final kick she broke the surface, cool air stinging her face and burning her throat as she greedily gasped down deep breaths. She flailed for a moment as frozen limbs forgot how to move, her head ducking below the surface a few times until finally she was treading water.

She blinked in the moonlight, taking in her surroundings. The pipe had deposited them into the river as promised, but now she couldn't see the building that had been her prison. The current must have carried her further downstream, which on the plus side meant that they had quite a head start on their captors. On the downside it meant that finding Dick could be an issue.

 _Dick…_ Artemis suddenly realised with heart-stopping horror that she had no idea where the other teen was. The cold was making her lethargic, but adrenaline kicked in as she started panicking and desperately searching around. She dived back under the water a few times, trying to see him in the dark, the current still carrying her further down river.

"Dick! Dick!" she screamed as she treaded water again, scanning everywhere for any sign of pale skin and dark hair. Her limbs ached from trying to stay afloat but she ignored her body's protests. "Damnnit Dick! Where are you?!"

The river was wide, surrounded on both sides by huge trees. Leaves and sticks and other flotsam collected along its banks, and as Artemis felt herself being swept towards the compilation of junk she thought she caught sight of the stark white of a Gotham Academy school shirt. Hope gave her the strength to get her limbs to obey and she swam towards the almost indefinable lump caught on a felled tree that hung over the river's edge.

Numb fingers scrabbled at the old bark as she pulled herself along. The closer she got the more of his features she could make out. His dark hair was matted and dripped down over his pale face, a fresh cut on his cheek standing out in the moonlight. His eyes were closed, but his face was above water which Artemis took as a blessing. If he had been under that long the chances of him being…

She cut that thought of before she even finished it as she came up beside him. His shirt sleeve had caught on a branch, keeping him from being swept further away. She pried off the snagged fabric and pulled Dick towards her, turning him around and towing him over to the river bank. Normally, Artemis was a strong swimmer, but she was cold and tired and holding Dick was awkward as she did a one-armed backwards paddle. It took her far longer than she would have liked, but finally they made it to the shore and she hauled him over to a relatively flat patch of rocky mud.

"Come on Grayson," she murmured as she knelt beside him and checked him over. "Please don't be dead…"

She hovered her hand over his face, trying to feel for a breath that he did not have. Shaking, she then pressed two fingers against his neck, her eyes closed as she prayed. _Nothing._

"Oh God no…"


	6. Part Six

** Part Six **

_Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight. Twenty-nine. Thirty._

Artemis leaned down and covered Dick's mouth with her own, breathing deeply twice. She took a moment to check his pulse, and then she started the cycle again. Her knees hurt from the sharp rocks on the ground, but she ignored that, and the cold and everything else. The only thing that her brain could focus on was the counting as she kept pressing down on his chest.

She came to the end of the count again and breathed for him, only vaguely aware of the tears on her cheeks. She was shaking, her arms aching and her back protesting, but she wouldn't give up. Not even when she had to start the count again. A traitorous voice in the back of her head kept whispering that it was useless. Even if by some miracle she brought him back now it could already be too late to save brain function. _It's cold_ , she scolded herself. _There's a chance._

"Come on Dick…" she begged, on the verge of breaking down and sobbing. "Please… please don't do this…"

_Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen…_

Somewhere far off in the distance, the shouts of the mercenaries carried through the night air. That traitorous voice, that Artemis realised sounded a lot like her sister, told her that she needed to move. He was already gone. She had to leave him behind. _NO!_

_Twenty-eight. Twenty-nine. Thirty._

She breathed for him again, ignoring how cold his lips were against hers. She pressed her fingers to his neck but the artery was still beneath her touch. So she started again, pushing on his chest so hard that she was sure that she would fracture a few ribs. But she would apologise later when the stubborn brat woke up.

"You can't do this to me!" she moaned as she continued the compressions. "It was your stupid plan! Come on Robin! WAKE UP!"

He shot up with a desperate gasp, and then almost immediately sagged back, his eyes rolling backwards in his head. For a moment, Artemis was too surprised to act, but then she caught him before he dropped back onto the hard ground, turning him onto his side as he choked up a lungful of water. She rubbed his back soothingly, holding him like a child until his coughing fit subsided into wheezing pants. She didn't know how long they stayed like that, but the shouts of their pursuers as they co-ordinated their search along the river bank was getting dangerously close.

She brushed Dick's dark hair away from his forehead. "I'm sorry, but we've got to move now, Grayson."

Dick grumbled something unintelligible and turned away from her. He was exhausted, suffering from blood loss, fighting an infection and fever, and he had just drowned in near-freezing waters. All he wanted to do was sleep, and though he wasn't coherent enough to put that desire into words, Artemis understood completely. The relief of him waking up had drained the last of her adrenaline, leaving her shivering in her wet clothes as the brisk autumn wind cut her like a knife.

"I know it's hard," she conceded as her teeth began to chatter, "But we need to move and I can't carry you. I need your help, Dick, please."

His eyes opened briefly, giving her a glimmer of hope, but then they closed again, his semi-conscious body feeling heavier in her arms. The shouts were getting even closer now; it wouldn't be long before the goons stumbled upon them without even trying. Artemis glanced around them, trying to find a nearby hiding place that she could drag Dick to, but there was nowhere substantial enough that they wouldn't be immediately discovered. They needed distance, and they needed it now.

Artemis adjusted her hold of Dick, pulling him semi-upright and slinging his arm over her shoulders. There was absolutely no way that she was leaving him behind. She got herself ready to climb to her feet, but before she stood she changed the tone of her voice. Instead of being gentle and coercing the young teen into cooperating, she made it an order. She tried to mimic Batman's speech pattern, hoping to get through to the young hero.

"Robin. You need to get up. Now."

Blue eyes looked sideways at her, some of the haze beginning to clear. He then glanced around, taking in their less than stellar surroundings and probably hearing their approaching firing squad for the first time. He then looked back at her. "Temis?" he slurred, much as he had the first time he had woken up in their cell. The archer smiled at him reassuringly, and then slowly began to stand. After a moment, Dick managed to get his own legs to collaborate, taking some of his weight even as he still leaned on her heavily.

"We are going to have to run now," Artemis informed him, wrapping her arm tightly around his waist and gripping the hand that hung by her shoulder.

"Kay…" Dick muttered, boldly forcing himself to take the first step.

And then they were half-running, half-stumbling through the underbrush, their pursuers hot on their tail.

* * *

 

"Master Bruce," Alfred's polite voice broke through the maelstrom of thoughts and worries spinning around Bruce Wayne's head. He looked over his shoulder from where he had been staring at the photos on the mantle and met the butler's concerned gaze. "Commissioner Gordon has arrived and wishes to speak with you."

Bruce nodded. He had been expecting as much. "Thank you Alfred. If you could show him here, please?"

"Absolutely, sir," Alfred responded and vanished from the doorframe as silently as any bat. Bruce turned back to the pictures, his gaze hovering on a photo of Dick taken over a year ago now. It was a school photo that neither of them particularly liked but it had been good for their cover for it to be displayed so prominently in the family home. In the image Dick had his hair slicked back and his face was structured in the mask that he usually reserved for the Gotham elite when he was forced to attend one of the dull Wayne charity functions.

It was the day that Bruce had seen that photo when he had first realised that Dick Grayson was just as much of a pseudonym for his ward as Robin was. Neither identity correctly defined the boy and both was just a presentation of what was expected in that given role. But if both Dick Grayson and Robin were masks, then who was real? When could his son ever show his true self when the two aspects of his life were kept so completely separate?

Maybe that was why Dick had chosen to reveal his identity to Kid Flash, Bruce mused. Dick was not one for disobeying orders (not important ones, that is) and to keep it a secret so well from even him was quite a feat. But now Bruce thought that he was beginning to understand the motivations behind it. Wally West was Robin's best friend. If there was ever a person that you could be yourself around, it had to be your best friend.

"Mr Wayne," Gordon greeted solemnly, derailing Bruce's train of thought. The billionaire turned around to face the police chief that he had come to rely upon when as his alter-ego. "Detective Bullock updated me on the kidnapper's timetable change and I have seen the video. We're doing everything we can to locate your son and Miss Crock."

"Have you spoken to Paula yet?" Bruce asked. The wheelchair bound ex-con was currently staying in a guest room at the manor while the situation was being resolved. While he was informing the team of the intel that Dick had given them, Alfred had seen to the concerned mother and shown her the video that she had missed. She was understandably distraught and had yet to leave her room.

Gordon nodded. "Yes, I spoke with her when I arrived. She is holding up as well as can be expected, although she is worried about her daughter being alone and on the run."

Bruce sighed and then sat himself down in the armchair by the fireplace. The hearth was cold and unused, but he found himself staring at the unburned logs as if enthralled by the imaginary flames. He felt Gordon's eyes boring into him.

"Forgive me for saying this," Gordon said after a moment, a trace of suspicion in his voice. "But you are taking this rather well."

"There is something that I need to tell you," Bruce replied, almost hesitantly, not a tone that he used often. He turned to face Gordon, preparing to lie to one of the few men that he trusted in Gotham. Well, tell a half-truth to anyway. If there was one thing Bruce knew, it was that the most convincing of lies always had a shade of truth to them. "I employed an outside contractor to track down Dick and Artemis while I negotiated with the kidnappers and followed their demands. Thirty minutes ago I received word that they had a possible location and have deployed a recovery team to pick them up."

Gordon gaped at Bruce in stunned silence for a moment, and then blinked, anger darkening his features. "And when were you going to inform the GCPD about this? When were you going to tell me? Wait, actually – when were you going to tell _Paula Crock_ that you had _found her daughter?"_

"I was waiting for confirmation of their safety," Bruce replied. "I didn't want to give her false hope if the worst happened."

"False hope?" Gordon questioned incredulously. "Right now that woman has _no_ hope. As far as she knows her daughter is running for her life from a group of armed gunmen that want her captured for God knows what purpose, with no hope of anyone finding her before its too late. And yet here you are sitting here, waiting for your son to be returned to you. I didn't think that you were a selfish man, Mr Wayne. I thought that you were different. I guess I was wrong."

And with that the police commissioner swept out of the room, leaving Bruce alone with his thoughts once more. After a short while, Alfred reappeared, his footsteps barely making any sound on the hardwood floors. "Master Bruce?"

"Have we received any news from the team yet?" Bruce asked.

"I am afraid not, sir," Alfred replied gravely. "I will be sure to let you know the moment that they make contact. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

Bruce looked back to the photo on the mantle, studying the fake smile that Dick was giving the camera and trying to recall the last real grin his son had passed his way. It had been an oversight on his part, not informing Paula Crock of the additional efforts to find her daughter. But he had been so focused on his own missing child that he had not realised the effects on the other anxious parent. "Is Ms Crock still in her room?"

"Yes sir," Alfred replied with a slightly furrowed brow.

"Can you please bring her some tea and inform her that I will be joining her if she doesn't mind," Bruce requested, climbing to his feet. "And could you please bring any news from the team to the both of us."

"As you wish, sir."

* * *

 

Wally pulled down his goggles and activated the infrared, scanning their immediate area. The young team of heroes had begun their search in the shadows of the large Carnahan Energy facility, factoring in the time of the video and the amount of ground two injured teens would be able to cover. It was slow going and frustrating for the anxiety-ridden speedster.

M'gann had already telepathically scanned the building and confirmed that Dick and Artemis were not still inside, though the two missing teens were still outside of her telepathic range. But the team refused to get disheartened.

' _Miss Martian,'_ Aqualad said over the mind link, and Kid Flash deactivated his goggles and looked over at their leader. The Martian in question lowered herself down from where she had been flying above the trees and disengaged her camouflage. _'Have you been able to pick up anything with your telepathy?'_

Miss Martian shook her head beneath her hood. _'There are many men in the woods but they are all thinking in Vietnamese and I cannot understand them. I've been tracking their movements, but without knowing if they've found something there's no point following them.'_

' _I've been listening as well,'_ Superboy added, gesturing through the trees. _'It sounds like they're concentrating their search along the river banks.'_

' _Then perhaps we should as well,'_ Aqualad acquiesced. Miss Martian took to the sky again as the three earthbound teens quietly traipsed through the thick undergrowth. As they got closer to the river even Kid Flash could hear the shouts of the thirty or so mercenaries as they hacked their way through the forest. Apparently, these guys were not going for stealth.

The teenage heroes kept to the trees along the banks with Miss Martian remaining invisible above them, occasionally flying ahead but never leaving her telepathic radius with the team. They kept walking and searching, feeling as if they were taking forever, but Kid Flash refused to look at the time in order to either confirm or deny that sense. As far as he was concerned, it would take as long as it took to find them, and he wasn't giving up or complaining until they did.

His silence was uncharacteristic, but his teammates understood why. No one asked him the stupid questions that people insist on asking when all you want is your own headspace to think. They were all concerned about Artemis, and so they were all quiet. They kept the mind link clear of the usual chatter and bantering that clogged it on normal missions, allowing Miss M to concentrate on her mental search.

Perhaps they were too focused on finding Artemis and Dick however, because somehow, despite them all being on high alert for the slightest sign of their missing friends, none of them noticed when they got close enough to a group of the mercenaries for them to be spotted.

There was a moment of shock as the two groups looked at each other warily, and then suddenly bullets were flying. Aqualad immediately had his water bearers to hand, a shield forming to protect him from the lead hail, while Superboy simply walked through the gunfire completely unharmed. Kid Flash literally zipped into action, glad for the release of tension super-speed running granted him, disarming the mooks that Miss M didn't get with her telekinesis.

These mercenaries were highly trained, but they clearly were not prepared to be fighting four meta-humans and after a short bout against the speedster, the alien, the super clone and the Atlantean's water sorcery, seven of the ex-soldiers were quickly downed.

But the battle had been far from the covert that they had been hoping for, and even now in the brief reprieve that they had earned themselves, they could hear the rest of the mercenaries regrouping in order to investigate the disturbance. On the up side, it should distract them from hunting down Artemis and Dick. On the down side, they weren't even meant to be there…

But all of that was forgotten when Miss M muttered out loud, "Artemis!"

' _What is it, Miss Martian?'_ Aqualad asked over the link as the four teens disappeared back into the shadows and regrouped away from the battleground on the river bank.

' _It's Artemis! She just reached out telepathically to me!'_ Miss M replied excitedly.

' _Can you patch her into the link?'_ Kid Flash asked, slightly desperate to hear his girlfriend's voice… or _thoughts_ as it would technically be.

Kid Flash looked up to see the green of Miss M's eyes even while she was in camo-mode. But then she closed her eyes and he could feel her disappointment and worry through the link. _'I can't, she's gone. I mean… I think she's unconscious now. But I can find her.'_

' _Lead the way,'_ Aqualad instructed.

Kid Flash followed the Martian, sending out a silent thought to the most important girl in his world. _We're coming Arty, just hold on a little longer._

* * *

 

The two bedraggled and shivering teens stumbled through the forest, competing in the world's most deadly three-legged race. For every two steps that Artemis took, Dick would try and help with one of his own, but by this point he was mostly just being dragged. He had stopped making any noise beyond his ragged breathing a while ago, despite how much pain he had to be in.

"Hold-d d-on, we're al…most th-there," Artemis murmured reassuringly, her voice stammering as her teeth chattered uncontrollably. She was lying though. She had no idea where she was going, so a promise of being near a destination was a complete fib. But Dick was mostly out of it, so she figured that there was no harm in trying to boost herself with false hope. "Ju-just a lit-t-tle bit f-further."

She had purposely steered them away from the river bank, knowing that that would be where the goons would start their search. Instead she had staggered deeper into the forest until the thick canopy above had almost totally blotted out the moonlight. Half blind, they had tripped on seemingly every tree root and rock the woods had to offer, but so long as they were moving away from their pursuers, Artemis was content to struggle onwards.

The icing on top of the cake was the light rain that had started as soon as they had lumbered away from the river bank. The trees shielded them somewhat, but the occasional fat drop would land on her head and dribble down her face, making her flinch at the cold. The constant drizzle kept her thin school uniform sodden and it stuck to her like a frozen body suit. The only good thing about their journey was that the exertion was keeping her blood flowing, combatting the bone-deep cold ever-so-slightly.

A sudden dip nearly sent the two teens sprawling, but Artemis reached out and grabbed a branch to rebalance them. With a loud _snap_ the branch broke, and she winced at the sound, half-expecting a masked gunman to materialise out of the undergrowth. She was well aware that they were leaving a trail of destruction in their wake that even an idiot could follow, but there was nothing she could do about that. It was hard enough to keep moving, without adding more work to the task. "N-not much l-longer n-now."

The ground began to get a little steeper, the squelching mud giving way to solid rock beneath their feet. There came a break in the trees that allowed the rain to reach them and trickle down the back of her shirt, but Artemis was smiling.

Ahead of them was a low cliff, a sheer wall of mud and stone with one brave tree growing almost sideways about halfway up. Partially obscured by the tree's branches was a small opening, barely big enough for a grown man to fit through with some inventive contortion. With a destination finally in sight, Artemis doubled her pace, adjusting her hold on Dick so that she didn't accidently drop him.

They clambered up the last of the incline and then Artemis leaned heavily against the side of opening, Dick hanging limply on her other side. She peered in, wary of predators, and then took her chances.

Inside it was practically pitch black, so Artemis felt her way along the cave wall, taking small steps so as not to trip on anything. She didn't go in too deep so as not to lose sight of the cave entrance, and then she lowered Dick carefully to the ground and propped him against the wall. With a sigh of relief, Artemis dropped down beside him, her exhausted body almost immediately beginning to shut down. "H-hey, Gr-grayson, look. I f-found us a c-cool hidey-h-hole."

Dick opened his eyes groggily, though in the darkness of the cave it probably didn't make a whole lot of difference. She watched as he slowly took in their surroundings, but then his eyes slid closed again and she began to panic. Whereas she was still shivering violently, Dick was eerily still. His skin appeared ghostly white and his lips were looking a little blue in the low light. She was pretty sure that falling asleep was the last thing that he should be doing. She huddled closer to him, wrapping her arms around him in an attempt to keep him warm even as her own body temperature dropped.

"C-come on, G-grayson… ch-check it out-t…" Artemis nudged him, trying to get his attention. "T-tell m-me; is th-this c-cooler th-than the b-batcave or w-what?"

Dick squinted at her, his eyebrows furrowing as his sluggish mind tried to process all of the things wrong with that statement. She doubted that he remembered what was going on, but it was probably hardwired into his brain that 'Grayson' and 'batcave' should not be in the same sentence. It took far longer than it should have for the usually quick-witted hero to put two and two together. "When… did you… f-figure… it out…?"

Artemis had to think about that for a moment, her own mind slowing right down as if her proverbial thought train had encountered snow on the tracks. She hadn't known for absolutely certain until that moment in the turbine room, but she guessed that she had subconsciously suspected that he was Robin long before that. Back in the library, the way that he had stood up to several armed men without the slightest flinch, the _smirk_ , it was all so very Robin. But then even before that, over a year ago now, when he had run up to her and snapped that damn photo, some small part of her had wondered.

"W-we'll l-laugh ab-bout th-this some d-day?" Artemis retorted with a small smile, and she saw a glint of mischief in the younger teen's dulled blue eyes. "Y-you l-little t-t-t-troll."

"Sorry… couldn't're…sist…" Dick slurred, taking a long blink.

Artemis squeezed him a little tighter, her own eyes sliding closed as well. She was so very tired, she felt as if she could sleep for a hundred years and it still wouldn't be enough. Every muscle in her body ached from her constant shuddering, and her arms and legs had gone completely numb. _It couldn't hurt to rest for a little while, right? We'll be home soon…_

The loud _rat-a-tat_ of automatic gunfire broke through her semi-conscious haze and dragged her grey eyes open. She took in the cave and the deathly still boy in her arms. _Where are we?_ She struggled to remember what had happened. Everything was just so heavy and the darkness of sleep was just so inviting. The gunfire sounded again. _Who was shooting? And who were they shooting at?_

Artemis didn't know where that thought had come from, but suddenly she was absolutely certain that her favourite red-headed speedster was nearby. She could feel his warmth as if he was right there beside her and it sparked a coherent thought process in her muzzy brain. _Wally. The team. Rescue. Home._

_M'gann._

Her eyes closed again, but this time it was not to sleep. She concentrated, as hard as her frozen mind could manage, thinking the Martian's name as loudly as she could. Finally, she felt a familiar touch in her thoughts, M'gann's worry and relief being transmitted across the link as clear as day. ' _Artemis!'_

' _M'gann… help…'_

* * *

 

' _Just up ahead,'_ M'gann directed from above as she looked down at the three guys beneath her, the moonlight making her near-invisible camouflage shimmer. _'There's a small cave behind a tree that they're sheltering inside.'_

Without waiting another moment, Wally sped off and disappeared in to the thick foliage. Connor watched him go, and then glanced over at Kaldur, the pair of them sharing a look. Together, they both ran towards the cave, following the speedster's careless trail of high-speed destruction. The closer that they got to the hiding place, the further the sounds of the mercenaries combing the woods became, the goons apparently not expecting the two teens to get so far away from the river.

Connor arrived at the cave entrance, stepping to one side and allowing Kaldur to enter first. The opening was small and he knew that it would be a tight fit for his broad frame, and without knowing the internal dimensions it made sense for the others to go first. M'gann touched down lightly beside him, her eyes wide with anxiety, looking as nervous and innocent as the first time he had met her. Connor took her green hand and gave it a quick squeeze for reassurance. She looked up at him gratefully, and then ducked inside.

With a readying breath of his own, Connor pushed through the crevice, relieved to find that it opened up into a surprisingly wide space. He didn't know where Wally had gotten it, but the bright beam of his flashlight illuminated the cavern and cast long shadows across the rock walls. He had propped the torch on the ground and crouched beside the very still forms of Artemis and Grayson, two fingers from each hand pressed against their necks and his eyes closed as if in prayer.

Connor cocked his head to one side and listened. Instantly he could hear the slightly too-fast heart beats of his panicked team mates, but he blocked them out, trying to listen for the quieter sounds. He heard the slight scuttle of insects, the soft scuff of M'gann's shoes as she shifted restlessly, the rustling of leaves moved by the wind. But from the two Gotham teenagers… he heard… _nothing._

Reluctantly, Connor made to tell the others, but then Wally blinked in surprise before a small smile pulled at his lips. Confused, Connor concentrated again. And then he heard it. Soft, sporadic thumps that were far too faint and slow to be healthy, and the whisper of shallow breaths.

"They're alive…" Wally muttered, looking as if he were in shock.

Kaldur recovered from the initial alarm caused by the sight of their nearly-dead teammates quickly. "M'gann, call the bio-ship and land it as close as you can. We need to get them out of here, now."

M'gann nodded and activated her connection with the alien craft as Wally gently disentangled Artemis from Grayson and gathered her in his arms. Kaldur knelt beside Richard and checked him over, and it was in that moment that Connor flashed back to his first proper day of existence.

In a Cadmus pod, born and raised, Connor had only ever really lived in his mind. Through his dreams and the visions that the G-Gnomes had shown him he had thought that he understood the real world. It wasn't until three sidekicks had magically appeared and showed him the truth that his life had really begun. He remembered waking in his pod, the order to take down the intruders ringing loudly in his ears, his body moving seemingly with a mind of its own. He had attacked his would-be rescuers; throwing them around like rag dolls and stepping on the smallest one without a second thought.

But there was a millisecond when Connor had watched the Atlantean see to the black-haired boy, concern etched on his dark features, and it had made the clone take the smallest of pauses. A small gesture that had showed Connor what friendship and comradery was, and made him want it.

And now, hunched over slightly in the confines of a cave in the middle of nowhere, Connor saw the same moment again. Kaldur had the exact same expression of fear on his face as he scanned the smaller, injured boy, and suddenly Connor was certain that he knew the kid's real identity. He had suspected earlier – the Batman wasn't usually so defensive of normal civilians, and Wally had been even more worked up than the clone had expected considering the situation. But it wasn't until that very moment that Connor knew for sure.

"I've landed the ship in the clearing outside," M'gann informed them, her arms wrapped around her shoulders as if she were cold.

Kaldur nodded, and made to pick up the small teen, but Connor knelt down instead. The two of them shared a look, an understanding passing between them. "I've got him."

M'gann led the way out of the cave and out into the rain that was falling a little heavier than before. She skidded slightly on the wet leaves that covered the slope, but Kaldur caught her, keeping a reassuring hand on her arm. Wally went next, Artemis gathered in his arms with her head tucked in the crook of his neck. She gripped the fabric of his uniform as if it were a lifeline. Connor scooped Grayson up behind his shoulders and under his knees, knowing that the boy would be mortally embarrassed if he were awake. As it were, he didn't stir in the slightest, his body feeling as cold as ice in the clone's arms.

Connor watched his footing as he descended the hill and then followed the others into the warm interior of the bio-ship. With a thought, M'gann had changed the seating configuration; widening Wally's seat so that he could stay with Artemis, and reclining Robin's so that Connor could lay him down.

"Get us out of here," Kaldur instructed as he took his seat.

M'gann shifted uncertainly as she commanded the ship to take to the air. "Ummm… where do we take them? Don't we have to preserve a cover story to protect their identities?"

Connor smiled to himself, _so she's figured it out too._ But then he listened to their rescued teammates fading heartbeats and his expression changed into one of impatience. "They don't have time for that."

"Connor is right," Kaldur agreed. "We will take them to Mt. Justice. Batman can come up with a cover story later."

Wally wasn't paying any attention to them, his focus was entirely on Artemis. They were sitting side-by-side; his arms wrapped around her and rubbing her cold exposed skin to warm her up, her head resting on his shoulder and her body shivering occasionally. He would glance over at Grayson regularly, as if to confirm his best friend's continued existence. Connor kept listening to the kid's ever-quieting heartbeat to reassure himself. Richard was just so _still._

"We're fifteen minutes from the cave," M'gann said, and as Connor glanced out of the window he could see that the outside world had become a blur as the Martian pushed the craft to its top speed.

Kaldur nodded, and then activated the comm-link. "Aqualad calling Green Arrow 08. MJ/Cave. B02."

" _Aqualad? What's your status? Have you found them yet?"_ Green Arrow's voice sounded over the ship's radio.

"Affirmative, we have found them," Kaldur replied. "But they are in a serious condition. We are bringing them to the cave for emergency medical treatment."

There came a slight hesitation over the line. _"Aqualad, you can't bring a civilian to the cave…"_

Connor growled. "We know that he's Robin."

" _Thank God."_ Green Arrow said, his relief evident even over the connection. _"I'll call Black Canary and Red and have them prep the med-bay. How far out are you?"_

"Ten minutes," M'gann replied. Green Arrow thanked them and then cut the link so that he could contact the other members of the League and update the Batman, leaving the teens on the ship in silence again as they approached their destination at high speed.

The warmth of the ship was helping Artemis and she stirred slightly in Wally's arms. Gradually she opened her eyes and blinked up at the speedster, looking very confused. "W-Wally?"

"Hey beautiful," the red-head replied, brushing a strand of damp hair away from her face. "How are you feeling?"

"C-cold…" Artemis muttered as she looked around the bio-ship and took in the other occupants. She couldn't see Robin as Wally was blocking her view from the angle she sat at. "W-what happened? W-what's going on-n…?"

"You don't remember?" Wally asked worriedly, his eyes then flicking over his shoulder at their youngest member. Artemis shifted weakly in his grip, trying to see what he was looking at but unable to support her own weight as she pushed away from him. Wally pulled her into a tighter hug and stroked her hair. "Shhh… don't worry. We'll be home soon and everything will be alright."

Connor thought that it sounded like Wally was trying more to convince himself than her with that promise, but he kept that to himself and turned away from them. Outside the view became a little clearer as M'gann slowed the bio-ship on their approach to the cave, the tall rock of Mt. Justice looming on the horizon. She called ahead to get Green Arrow to open the bay doors, and then they were descending into the cool cavern.

Connor was on his feet the fastest, quickly scooping up Robin again and leading the way out of the ship. Wally followed close behind, carrying Artemis bridal style as they walked down the ramp. Immediately Black Canary and Green Arrow were there, checking over the two injured teens. The look of fear that flickered over the blonde Leaguers' faces as they saw the state of Artemis and Robin didn't go unmissed by anyone.

"Take them straight to med-bay, now," Black Canary ordered, hurrying by Connor's side as they navigated the cave's many corridors. The whole trip, Connor blocked out the loud, panicked heartbeats of everyone else, focusing purely on the slow, faint rhythm of the boy in his arms.

It was as he lay Robin down on the gurney and stepped back, that he was suddenly met with a cold silence. He looked to Black Canary desperately.

"I don't hear a heartbeat."


	7. Part Seven

** Part Seven **

Artemis felt as if she were floating on a fluffy white cloud. It was warm and comfortable and all the pretty colours that danced before her eyes made her feel as if she were a child watching some very quiet fireworks. It was all very nice and everything, but it wasn't long before she got bored.

Just outside of her soft, bright prison, she could see a lot of very uninviting darkness. But inside it was getting exceedingly dull, and out there in the unknown… well… she had always been an adventurous type. With some effort, she pushed out of the clouds and felt herself tumbling through the blackness. Gradually, she became aware of having an actual body, mainly through the sudden explosions of pain.

Her head thumped viciously as if a full brass band was warming up for the main event. Her chest hurt, feeling as if every breath she took wasn't of air but of lead, making her lungs feel solid and heavy. Her throat burned, her limbs ached and she could feel an accumulation of bumps and bruises all over her body. But it was all nothing compared to the pain in her ankle.

The fall through the darkness seemed to go on forever, the pain growing with every mile she got closer to the end. She was really beginning to regret leaving the clouds; they were far nicer than this terrifying drop into the abyss.

Eventually, _finally_ , she could see the light at the end of the tunnel. She hurtled towards it at high speed; a small part of her concerned about the fact that she was about to be squished, but most of her just grateful that it was almost over. Inches away from impact she was swathed in blindingly white light and then…

"Artemis?" A warm voice cut through the pain. "Can you hear me?"

 _Wally?_ Artemis thought, relief and the assurance of safety blasting away the light and allowing her vision to gradually clear. She blinked sluggishly, turning the fuzzy shapes that greeted her into clearer outlines. She took in the ceiling and then tentatively turned her head to the side where she knew the voice had come from. She saw the green eyes first, full of concern and looking exhausted, before the freckles and red hair came into focus. "W-Wally?"

He grinned at her, and she felt as if she were melting in his eyes. She had a vague recollection of being incredibly cold, but it felt so very far away as she was wrapped up in his gaze. He then backed out of her line of sight, making her panic for a moment, before he returned with a cup of water. He held it out to her, pressing the straw to her parched lips. "Here."

Gratefully, Artemis sucked in a mouthful, feeling as if she hadn't had a drink in days. She promptly choked and immediately Wally was there, lifting her into his arms and rubbing her back in soothing circles. She rested her head against his shoulder, her hand automatically reaching up to grab the front of his shirt. They stayed like that for a while in silence, just glad to finally have one another back and safe.

Artemis felt herself beginning to drift off again, but she didn't want to go back to the darkness or the fluffy white prison. She wanted to stay with Wally. She forced her eyes open and focused on the corner of his lips that she could see from where she lay against him. "W-what happened?"

She felt Wally sigh beneath her, reluctant to relive something that she doubted could have been fun for him. But he told her the story anyway, bits and pieces of her memory starting to come back to her. She remembered the fight at the school, waking up in the cell and finding Dick. She recalled escaping, her short ride on the water flume of doom… washing up on the river bank. The last thing she remembered was waiting in a cold cave, holding Dick as he fell very still and quiet in her arms.

"Grayson…?" Artemis asked tentatively, looking up at Wally worriedly. He wouldn't meet her eyes. "Is he…?"

"He's alive," Wally replied, though he didn't sound overly certain. His grip round her waist got a little tighter as if he were afraid to let go. "Uncle Barry came in while you were sleeping to let me know that Dick was stable, but he wouldn't tell me anything else." He looked down at her and tried for a smile. "You know who he is, right?"

Artemis smiled back. "It took me long enough, but yeah. I know he's Robin. It's so obvious once you know. I can't believe I didn't see it."

"That's what I said when he told me," Wally said fondly, and Artemis realised why her boyfriend looked so tired. He had known from the very beginning that it was his girlfriend _and_ best friend missing, and probably would have had to play along with whatever cover story the Batman had come up with to protect Dick's identity from the others. Though judging from the fact that they were in Mt. Justice now, she suspected that that charade was over. Wally seemed to follow her train of thought. "The team figured it out too; though they didn't seem overly bothered by the fact that if Robin is Dick Grayson then Batman is Bruce Wayne. I don't think they actually know who Bruce Wayne is."

Artemis furrowed her brow as that part of the puzzle finally clicked. She rolled her eyes at herself. "Oh, _duh."_

Wally laughed softly at her. "It's okay, babe. We'll blame your slowness on the concussion, the hypothermia and the broken ankle."

"Broken ankle?" Artemis asked, propping herself up a little to see the cast that wrapped around her left foot. "I didn't know that it was broken…"

"Yeah, a hairline fracture," Wally explained. "Running for your life and taking a refreshing swim didn't exactly help it much, but there's no permanent damage. BC's more concerned about the chest infection you caught from hanging out in the cold so long."

 _Ah, so that's why my chest hurts so much._ Artemis smirked slyly at him. "Nothing some chicken soup and some shared body heat can't fix."

Wally crooked a brow at her and she snuggled against him. "Was that a hint about my future enslavement by any chance?"

"Hey, when you broke your arm last year you had Captain Marvel waiting on you hand and foot," Artemis pointed out with a slight pout. "I fully intend for you to repay the favour, to _me._ "

Wally stroked back her long hair and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Anything you want, babe."

* * *

 

" _Richard Grayson and Artemis Crock were recovered from their kidnappers four days ago by a security team hired by Bruce Wayne once it became clear that he would be unable to gather the demanded ransom amount in time. Both teenagers are currently being treated for their wounds at Gotham Memorial and doctors are confident in their full recovery. The families ask that you respect their privacy during this trying time. Thank you."_

Bruce Wayne sighed in relief as he watched Commissioner Gordon back away from the reporters that were screaming random questions at him. As always, the theories of the press had been wild following the last video streamed on the internet and the abrupt silence from the police that followed. But it appeared that the world was buying the story that Bruce had cobbled together on half-truths and faked paper trails.

He picked up the remote and flicked off the small TV and returned his attention to the little bundle tucked into the bed beside him. Dick was so very still, but the comforting rhythm of the heart monitor and the subtle whisper of the oxygen mask assured him that his son was indeed still alive.

Two days after their rescue from the forest in Colorado, once it had been determined that Dick was stable enough to travel, Bruce had arranged for both teenagers to be transferred to Gotham Memorial to play out their recovery as civilians. Reporters from every paper and news channel on the East coast was camped outside, waiting for a glimpse of the billionaire and his ward, but that was just a part of the life that Bruce had to put up with. If it preserved their identities and kept Dick safe then the invasion of privacy was fine by him.

He leaned forward in his seat and stroked the dark hair away from Dick's face. He brushed his thumb over the cut on the boy's cheek, wishing that he could see his son's bright blue eyes. Dick was still so very pale and hadn't woken once, not even four days later, which worried Bruce to no end. His son's small frame was buried under layers of blankets, several tubes and wires snaking out from underneath and leading back to the oppressive machines. Dick was fighting a severe infection from the bullet wound and had managed to catch pneumonia from his exposure to the cold. The doctors were worried about brain damage caused during the two times his heart had stopped, but Bruce refused to acknowledge that possibility. Dick was a fighter, he would be okay. _He had to be._

"Master Bruce?" Alfred asked cautiously from where he had appeared at the door. Bruce glanced over at him to find the butler studying his youngest charge with worried eyes. He then noticed that Bruce was looking at him. "Mister Kent called. It is time for the meeting, sir."

Bruce sighed again, this time reluctantly. He stood and then bent down to place a kiss of Dick's forehead and then walked over to Alfred and took his proffered coat from the butler. He looked back at his son, not wanting to leave him, not when he had only just got him back.

"I will stay with him, sir. He should not be left alone after the ordeal he has been through," Alfred offered as he moved further into the room. He handed over the car keys and Bruce smiled at him gratefully. "The Rolls is parked by the side entrance that has yet to be discovered by the parasites."

"Thank you, Alfred," Bruce nodded, not quite able to take his eyes off of his young ward. "If… If he wakes…"

"I will call you immediately, sir," Alfred promised. "And I will inform the young master of his poor timing; picking the one moment to wake up and stop worrying us when you were not keeping a vigil by his bedside."

Bruce smiled. "I will be back as soon as I can."

"I am sure Master Richard will understand the importance of this particular gathering, sir."

* * *

 

"I'm fine, Mom," Artemis assured her mother. The blonde archer was sat up in her hospital bed, her broken ankle propped up on several pillows and a tray of food straddling her lap. The chair by her bedside was pushed back against the wall to make room for Paula Crock's wheelchair, which she had then parked right next to the gurney so that she could prop her elbows on the thin mattress. "You can stop staring at me, any time now."

"I almost lost you Artemis!" her mother cried indignantly. "I thought for sure… once I saw that video… I thought that you were gone."

Artemis sighed regretfully. "I know, Mom. I wish I hadn't put you through that, but it wasn't like I had a great deal of choice. I didn't ask to be kidnapped."

"But we both know why you were," Paula replied, her gaze dropping to her hands, guilt clouding her features. "Your sister contacted me, not long before the last video was broadcasted. She told me that it was your father who had engineered the kidnapping. I am so sorry, Artemis."

"It's not your fault," Artemis said reassuringly, and then she turned away, stabbing at her jello with a spork vehemently. "Besides, for him it was just a job. It was his employer that targeted me."

Paula glared at the blankets as if they were an enemy that needed beating with extreme prejudice. "Yes, an employer that we still do not know the identity of nor the motivations, who also knows your real name and family."

"Gee, Mom," Artemis said sarcastically. "That's exactly what I wanted to be reminded of while I'm bedridden and crippled and basically defenceless."

Paula blinked and then looked up and met her daughter's eyes. "I'm sorry, you're right. I'm just worried about you. I never wanted this life for you, and the fact that you have chosen the right side and fight for your friends… I am so proud of you Artemis. Even the thought of losing you… I could not bear it."

"Mom, you're not the only one that's worried right now," the blonde teen replied. "I've got the whole League looking out for me and the team are always watching my back…"

"And Wally," Paula added, with a raised eyebrow. Artemis flushed a deep shade of scarlet. She had been keeping her and Wally's relationship a secret from her family, not wanting to jeopardise what she had with the Crock/Nyugen curse. "I see the way that boy looks at you. The way he's been watching over you these last few days. He's a keeper."

"I know," Artemis replied, her gaze growing distant. Wally was currently spending a little time with Dick whose room was just down the hall. She wished that she was allowed to get up and see the little troll too, but she was strictly forbidden from putting any weight on her broken ankle. She realised then that she was daydreaming and looked back at her mother who was smiling knowingly at her. "What?"

"I'm just glad that you're happy, Artemis," Paula replied. "After everything our family has put you through… You deserve someone as good as him. And with Jade pursuing that nice speedy boy… it gives me hope for you girls."

Artemis smiled, and then did a double take. "Wait, _what_ nice speedy boy?"

* * *

 

"We combed the entire facility, several times over," Superman explained as he gestured at the holographic display in front of him. "There was nothing to lead to the puppet master behind this, and the mercenaries we managed to capture could only name Sportsmaster as their employer."

Around the large round table all the gathered members of the League shared uneasy looks. No one was happy about the lack of information on the man behind the curtain – if it were even a man. Someone smart enough to keep themselves completely undetected as they uncovered the League's secrets and pulled all the strings was not an enemy to be taken lightly. Batman glared at the hologram pensively through his cowl, trying to focus on the meeting even as his thoughts were elsewhere.

"Have we been able to track down Sportsmaster for questioning?" Wonder Woman asked, leaning forward and propping her elbows on the table top. "It would appear that he is our best lead."

"That is the plan," Superman replied, gesturing at Martian Manhunter and then glancing cautiously at Green Arrow. "Once we have caught him J'onn has offered to search his mind for any information, however…"

"Roy's been in contact with the assassin Cheshire, who was the one able to track Sportsmaster down during the kidnapping," Green Arrow continued. "They claim that Sportsmaster is a dead end, involved purely to distract us from whoever is really behind this."

Wonder Woman raised an eyebrow. "Maybe we should be talking to Cheshire rather than just trusting her word like Red Arrow."

Green Arrow averted his eyes from the Amazonian princess and Superman cleared his throat. "Well, we are trying to track down Cheshire as well, but so far we have had little luck with either."

"So what now?" Flash asked the question they had all been thinking. "Are they targeting the team to get to us? Or should we consider all of our secret IDs compromised?"

"For now we're on high alert," Superman answered. "Take all precautions to protect your civilian lives and everyone in them and keep an eye out for each other. It is likely that this villain will come after us through our protégés, but we won't let that happen again."

Batman felt the big blue Boy Scout's eyes look at him in concern and forcefully dragged his attention back to the room. All of the currently assembled League knew of his and Robin's real identities, and most of them had known the first sidekick since he was nine. They were all worried about their youngest hero and as silence settled they all gave Batman sympathetic looks. This was not productive.

"How are they?" Wonder Woman asked, breaking the stillness.

"The team is coping well, considering," Black Canary replied. "And Artemis will make a full recovery. Everyone is anxious to know about Robin though."

Instantly the image of Dick, small, still and fragile in his hospital bed flashed across Batman's mind's eye and he clenched his hands under the table. He wasn't sure if he could trust his voice when he spoke. "He's stable."

Superman met his eyes through the cowl for a moment, understanding passing between them, and then the Kryptonian stood. "We will continue to investigate and keep watch over the team. Meeting adjourned."

Batman vanished from his seat, his disappearance only announced by the unavoidable voice of the computer as he zeta-beamed to the batcave. In moments he was transformed back into Bruce Wayne and then he was breaking all the speed limits between the manor and Gotham Memorial. The side entrance was still free from the press and he quickly snuck back in and took the elevator up to the fourth floor.

As he stepped out into the stark white corridor, he almost walked straight into Alfred. The butler blinked in surprise and then held up the cell phone Dick had bought him a few years ago to 'modernise' him. "I was just about to call you, sir."

Bruce panicked and sidestepped the startled Alfred, running the ten yards to Dick's room and shouldering open the door. He took in his son's still form and the doctor hovering over him, his heart feeling as if it would explode in his chest. And then he was met by the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen.

"Brsss?"

* * *

 

Dick was going stir crazy.

He had been out of the hospital for two weeks now and had not been allowed to leave the confines of his bed. He was still vulnerable to catching infections after his bout of pneumonia, so he had been allowed little to no visitors to break up the boredom. And after a small incident involving a computer, the Pentagon, and a very angry phone call, the Boy Wonder had been banned from all things technological as well.

He dropped his head back against the headboard and glared up at the ceiling. Couldn't he at least have the TV back? It wasn't like he could hack anything with that! Well, he probably could if he hooked it up to a few other things… Dick was pretty sure he could MacGyver up a pretty awesome super computer actually.

_Okay. That's probably why they've taken all your toys away._

He had read every book in his room and had then snuck down to the library when he was sure Alfred wasn't looking. He had even done the catch-up homework Barbara Gordon had bought over during one of his rare visits from the outside world. But now there was nothing else to do, and as much as he loved Alfred and Bruce, Dick was a social creature and he needed to actually _see_ other people. He was pretty close to pulling a mission impossible and shimmying down the drainpipe just so that he could confirm that the rest of the human race still existed.

Dick knew that it had been a close call for him. From what he could remember (which wasn't much past the first ransom call, and even that was hazy) it had not been a fun experience. He had felt terrible and weak for the following few weeks afterwards, when usually he bounced back from injuries quite quickly. It freaked him out, how close he had come to dying (and apparently had done so, _twice_ ) and for a while he had been incredibly thankful for Bruce's overprotectiveness. He had needed to feel safe. Now though…

Well, now he needed social interaction. Before he lost his mind completely.

Dick perked up when he heard the manor's doorbell ring loudly throughout the house, echoing down the empty halls. He listened intently as he heard Alfred's shoes _clip-clop_ on the wood floors and then the door was opened and Dick heard muffled voices. Familiar voices. And then two sets of footsteps were climbing the stairs and heading straight for his room.

"Oh thank god!" Dick exclaimed as his door was swung open and Artemis and Wally were standing there, grinning at him. "Please tell me that you're real and not a figment of my desperate imagination!"

Artemis laughed at him as she limped across the threshold on her crutches, Wally following a step behind. "They've got you under house arrest, huh?"

"I am actually going insane," Dick replied, and then squinted at the bag slung over Wally's shoulder. It was suspiciously square shaped and flat. "Is that a… is that a laptop…?"

Wally nodded with a sly grin and then dropped the computer bag on top of the bed covers. Dick scrambled for it, pulling out and booting up the technology that he had been so cruelly deprived from as Artemis was helped onto the bed next to him on his left. She fluffed up his pillows to get her self comfortable and then sunk back and leant her head on his shoulder. With a sudden burst of speed that sent Dick's homework scattering, Wally ran to the other side of the bed and threw himself on Dick's right. "Alfred told us about your tech ban when we rang up to check if we could come over."

Dick turned to his best friend and made his eyes mock-water with tears of joy. "Have I ever told you how much I love you?"

Artemis lightly slapped his arm. "Careful, he's _my_ boyfriend."

"I saw him first!" Dick joked as Wally wrapped him in a sideways hug and poked his tongue out at his girlfriend. Artemis just rolled her eyes at their stupidity as the two boys cracked up with laughter. It felt good, but at the same time it pulled at the still healing bullet wound and Dick ended up wincing, hoping that it went unnoticed. He gestured at the cast on Artemis' ankle that was covered in colourful drawings and well-wishes, mainly done by M'gann. "How's your ankle?"

"Fine," she shrugged. "More annoying than anything else. What about you?"

"I'm good," Dick replied automatically. Both Wally and Artemis gave him that look of complete disbelief and he sighed. He knew that he still looked terrible; a little too thin and way too pale (but in his defence, he hadn't seen the sun in what felt like _forever_ ), but honestly, he was way better than he had been. "I just feel tired a lot, but I'm fine, really."

Neither of them looked convinced, but thankfully they let the subject drop. Wally leaned forward and grabbed the laptop from Dick's grip, making the younger teen pout like a two-year-old at him. "I actually brought this for a reason you know," Wally said as he tried not to laugh at Dick's expression. "I thought we could Skype the team as Bats is being mean and not letting anyone visit."

"Cool," Dick's frown flipped into a smile, and then he furrowed his brow in confusion. "Wait. You know how to use Skype?"

Wally glared at him as he opened the programme. "I'll have you know that I was the team's hacker while you were out of commission. I accessed the GCPD network _and_ all of the city's traffic cameras."

Dick raised an eyebrow at him. "Did you happen to use those shortcut programmes I showed you?"

Wally shifted on the covers and then smiled in relief when M'gann, Kaldur and Connor appeared on the laptop screen. "Oh look! The team!"

" _Hi!"_ M'gann said excitedly, leaning the closest to the camera as if that would somehow get her nearer to them. Kaldur smiled behind her and even Connor looked pleased to see Dick conscious and not likely to imminently drop dead. _"How are you feeling, Robin?"_

Dick blinked, before remembering why he wasn't worried about the fact that he wasn't wearing his sunglasses. Back at the hospital, he vaguely remembered talking to Wally (or really, being talked to while he focused on staying awake and breathing), the speedster telling him that the secret was out. At first he had been worried what the team would think of him being a billionaire's ward, but then he decided that they probably wouldn't care. He hoped. "I keep forgetting that you guys know."

M'gann looked at him worriedly, as if she had done something wrong. _"It's okay though, right? You don't mind?"_

"What? No! It's great," Dick replied quickly. "I've always wanted to tell you guys, it was Bats that said I couldn't." He turned to Artemis who was still leaning against his shoulder. "I can't believe you didn't figure it out earlier, though. We've gone to the same school for over a year now."

Artemis lifted her head to glower at him. "You are a skinny little mathlete, not exactly someone I would pick out as Robin."

"Point taken. That is kind of the point of a secret ID after all," Dick replied with a shrug and then turned to address the laptop. "So what's been happening outside my new prison anyway?"

Kaldur and M'gann proceeded to fill Dick in on the new procedures the League had implemented to keep the team safe now that they knew that some big bad was hunting them down, with or without masks, and Connor grunted occasionally in agreement. This whole thing had gotten everyone shaken up and the mentors a little overprotective. Once Dick was brought up to date, Artemis nudged him in the side and glanced up at him curiously. "There's something I've been wanting to ask you…"

Dick looked at her warily. "Uh, ask away…"

"How do you know how to shoot?"

"Huh?" Dick said dumbly. "Why do people keep asking me that? Bruce, Alfred and Babs asked me as well and I don't have a clue what any of you are talking about."

That earned him worried glances from all five of his teammates. "You don't remember?"

"Remember what?" Dick asked frustrated. "I barely remember any of what happened. Apparently that's normal considering everything. If anything, it should be worse. Why do people want to know where I learned to shoot anyway?"

"Because you kinda shot two people," Artemis informed him, and Dick gave her a completely horrified look. "In the kneecaps!" she hurriedly added. "In the dark. It was some very impressive marksmanship. I would have struggled to do that with a bow."

"Oh," Dick said. "I _really_ don't remember that."

"It'll come back to you, dude," Wally said reassuringly, putting his arm around his best friend's shoulders. "But seriously, how _did_ you do that?"

Dick sighed. "It's not really that big a mystery. I travel by grapple line _a lot_ , which is essentially a gun that I have to fire with extreme accuracy, at night time, in Gotham, unless I wish to plummet to my very painful death. Using a firearm is essentially the same principal, minus the grapple line."

"Oh," Artemis muttered, a little dejectedly.

"Were you expecting something cooler?" Dick retorted with a smirk. Artemis rolled her eyes again and gave him a mock punch to the arm. "Any other random questions anyone feels the need to ask?"

"Yeah, how rich are you?" Wally joshed teasingly, poking his tongue out at the billionaire's kid. It was Dick's turn to roll his eyes.

"Master Richard," Alfred announced as he appeared in the door frame like a ninja. Wally raised his eyebrows at Dick and mouthed the formal title. Alfred noticed the speedster's spaz attack. "Is something the matter?"

Dick resisted the urge to face palm. "No, Alfred, just bad timing is all. What's up?"

"I thought it best to warn you that Master Bruce will be home shortly, and you are still meant to be forbidden from all technological devices," Alfred explained with a nod at the offending laptop. "It might be wise to make the computer scarce, sir."

Alfred vanished as quietly as he came; leaving Dick alone with the webcam audience, the cripple, and the crazy speedster that was currently miming Alfred's syntax and bowing ludicrously. Dick smacked him upside the head. "Stop that! I don't know why _you_ are making a fuss – you've known for ages!"

"Yes, but it is so much fun to watch you squirm, Master Richard," Wally retorted in an almost perfect British accent.

"You know what," Dick sighed resignedly. "Suddenly I'm not craving social interaction so much."

**FIN**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am in the process of writing a sequel to this fic; but due to the never-ending hiatuses I have had I refuse to start posting a story until I am at the very least almost done, so only complete fics will ever be posted here. I have two other multi-chapter fics and a handful of one-shots ready to post, but if you know me from my ff.net account I'm afraid I have no new material as of yet. 
> 
> I hope you have enjoyed! Thanks for reading!


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